Duel Dimensions
by Tru Mel Meiko Mei Ling
Summary: A new danger arises, requiring two young heroes, Ash and Misty, to travel into the YGO world to fight for the truth and make new friends along the way.
1. Ash vs Syrus

_**A/N: Story idea, concept and story credit go to JohnnyD2. All characters Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, and any other company licensed and owned characters and concepts are property of their respective owners and we do not own them!**_

_**A/N: Cards from both the manga and the show are used.**_

_**A/N: This is technically chapter 6 in this saga. The first 5 chapters were written by Charlot-Sweetie on Deviant Art with the same title of "Duel Dimensions". In those chapters, Misty and Ash had acquired their own Duel Spirits in their own world. Misty meets with Blizzed while Ash runs into Flamvell Baby. Then they were transported to the YGO world. Out of safety, Ash leaves Pikachu behind, bit it follows after him anyway. They face off against each other in a duel, where Misty teaches Ash how to play the game as best to her knowledge at the time. Afterwards, they enlist Chazz's company and they have a little talk about the differences in their worlds and the duel spirits. While speaking with him, Mokuba finds them and asks for Misty to follow him and meet with Seto about something relating to Pokemon. Ash and Misty branch off, with Ash leaving with Chazz to attend the Duel Academy. And this is where I picked up the task of continuing the story for Johnny.**_

OoO

_**Duel Dimensions**_

_**Chapter 6**_

OoO

"Wooow! This place is amazing!" Ash fervidly exclaimed. Once they reached the dorm in a few short hours, his awe escalated to heightened levels and is excited eyes darted in every direction around him while they absorbed every sight, "It's HUUUGE! How can you sleep at night?"

Faintly amused at Ash's boyish enthusiasm towards something as minor as the main hall of a dorm, Chazz gave the other a partial smile. While one's dwelling arrangements were important to one's status to Chazz, he had never seen anyone be as pleased to step foot in the hall with Ash's level of surprise. Not even Jaden showcased Ash's intensity. That bothered him slightly, but not in a negative sense. It just seemed now that he had two Jadens to deal with instead of one. Such "joy" that was going to be. He only hoped this guy wasn't as such a terrible loser like Jaden was at dueling.

"Anyway, Ash, was it? This is where you'll be staying while you attend this school," Chazz concluded, arms crossed. The shorter youth could not stop devouring his surroundings so much, Chazz began feeling the need to leave before the boy's eyes started to salivate.

"Really? This is so awesome!" Ash cheered, raising an energetic fist, "Thanks, Chazz! Do you mind if I have a look around? And where's the cafeteria?" he wondered, glancing around, peeking over Chazz's shoulders as if doing so would allow him to see one appear out of thin air. A puzzled frown inched across the darkly clad male's lips and he made a haughty sound, " Do as you like, Ash. But I'm not here to babysit. I've gotten you here and now my job is done. If you need anything, ask around. Or if you REALLY need anything, tell one of this pipsqueaks around here to inform the Chazz some newcomer needs help. Got it?"

"You got it, Chazz!" Ash replied. He was rather accustomed to people speaking that way to him, but he could take it. Besides, if Chazz were to challenge him to a Pokemon battle, he'd shut him up rather quickly. With short nods, the two of them turned on their heels and went their separate ways. It wasn't until the prized student was nearly out the main door when Ash paused to ask, "Did you just refer to yourself in the third person?"

OoO

About thirty minutes had passed while Ash traveled about the Slifer Red dorm. He saw much that excited him, and even more that startled him. As he observed the vast, lengthy halls, his mind began to drift back to memories of his hometown and how his life was there. His life before he met any of the friends he's made, like Misty. For a brief moment, he wondered how things fared on her end.

"Thinkin' about that hot chick again?" Flamvell Baby's distinct voice spoke up. The fiery infantile spirit floated next to Ash's shoulder with its little arms crossed over its chest as if his comment was as casual as asking one of the weather. Ash opened his mouth to answer, when he stopped himself, as well as his steps. Half mortified, and half shocked, Ash turned to the spirit and gave a very awkward expression, "What? MISTY? A hot chick?"

"So what if she is hot? And since you didn't answer me, I guess you were thinkin' about her. Right?"

A hush fell on Ash's lips and they dimmed to a small o shape. Then he began to stammer, "W-well, of course I'd think about her! She's a friend of mine! Don't you have friends that you think of?"

"Yeah, I've got friends. I don't only take care of myself BY myself, you know! I AM a baby after all. Haven't you noticed? "

"Well, yeah!" Ash agreed, starting to walk again. He kept his eyes on the duel spirit and gestured with his hands to aid in illustrating his points, "I've made a lot of friends since I left Pallet Town, but I've never met one like you before."

"Are you comparing your past friendships to us?" the child spoke, slipping Ash a sideways glance while he returned his eyes ahead of them.

"Yeah, why not? You don't want to be my friend?"

In response to this, the child smacked Ash upside the back of his head.

"Ow!" Ash cried, clutching the back of his head in his hands, "Why'd you do that Flamvell Baby?"

"To avoid a silly question like that!" he proclaimed and went to hit Ash again, but this time the youth dodged out of the way. Facing the spirit entirely, Ash made it a point to give a haughty laugh with his hands on his haunches, "Ha! I dodged ya this time!"

"But now you're really gonna get it! Look over there!" he nodded in front of himself, which was behind Ash. The dark haired boy raised his brows in interest and was about to turn but he stopped himself at the last minute, "Oh, no way, not this time! I am not getting tricked by you!" He grinned. At the boy's ignorance, Flamvell Baby groaned and rolled its eyes, "Fine," was all he said.

"What? 'Fine'?" Ash echoed, dropping his arms to his side, "Is that all you have to say?"

"Nope."

"Then what?"

"Have a nice trip," the fiery phantasm chortled, crossing his arms.

"Huh?" Ash questioned, raising his brows. Before he could understand what the warning meant, a loud cry of "UUUUWAAAAAAHHHH!" expelled from him as he literally tripped over a stray object in the hall and collapsed to the floor in a heap.

"I told you!" Flamvell Baby noted, shaking his head, then rolled his eyes.

"Guuuhhhhllll!" Ash whined, slowly starting to get up. Surprisingly, the floor wasn't as hard as he thought it would be. Looking over his shoulder, his eyes shrank in size as they beheld the reason why. When he fell, he took a prisoner along with him!

"Ouch ouch owww! You're heaavvvyyyy!" a squeaky voice griped from under Ash. Quickly, the youth scrambled to all fours to get a better look at who he accidentally toppled. "Ahhh! I'm REALLY sorry about that! Uh..."

"Syrus..." the softer voice spoke up. Cutely, he adjusted his glasses and peered up at Ash. A lucid sliver of an apology glimmered in his eyes, "I wasn't watching where I was going. Sorry I bumped into you..."

"Ash! Ash Ketchum. Nice to meet you, Syrus!" Ash offered in robust politeness. Then his features became sheepish and he rubbed the back of his head, "At least it would have been nice if I hadn't fallen on you...!"

"Ha... yeaaah..." Syrus trailed off. His attention drifted about Ash's form out of curiosity. He hadn't seen this guy before. As his vision traveled downwards, he noticed a scattered mess of Duel Monsters cards on the floor near Ash's knees. "Oh no!" he shrieked, rising to his knees, "Are these YOUR cards?"

"Huh?" Ash wondered, then gave an exclamation when he noticed the condition they were in, "Help me pick them up, would you?" Ash pleaded to the spirit. From the urgent, and familiar, timbre in his voice, Syrus eyed Ash with wide, dubious eyes. He was almost certain Ash wasn't speaking to him so forwardly in that tone, but he was the only one he saw. Uncertain, he parted his lips, "Um..."

"C'mon why won't you help me?" Ash continued, glancing in the direction of the Flamvell Baby. The annoyed spirit shook his head. Then he kicked Ash in the head with his little limbs, to which Ash reacted to with a recoil, "What do I look like? Your maid? You're the one who dropped them! It's your fault! You should take better care of your deck! You have one of ME in there!"

"Exactly! So the least you can do is help me get them!"

"Make me!"

"I can't touch you!"

"Your problem!"

"Awww Come ooonnn Flamvell Baby!"

"Keep it down!" the spirit warned, taking a swing at Ash again, "Not everyone can see duel spirits like you and your friend!"

"Awhah?"

"Look!" he pointed out, grasping Ash beneath his chin and forcing his face in Syrus' direction. The turquoise-haired boy double blinked slightly. A far off bemused look hung in his large gray eyes.

"Uh oh!" Ash panicked a bit, looking guilty of overstepping a forbidden boundary as if he had swallowed half of Cleavland without giving a reason why. After an awkward silence, Syrus' distant appearance began to melt away and an encouraging smile took its place, "If I had to guess, I'd say you can see duel spirits, am I right?"

"Awaaw!" Ash exclaimed. He blinked and exchanged glances with his spirit before returning his eyes to Syrus, "Y-yeah! How'd you know? Can you see them too?"

"Not at all! But I wish I could," he smiled wistfully, "My best friend Jaden can see them too! Gosh... to be able to see and interact with something like that... I hope that someday I'll be able to see a duel spirit of my own..." he surmised. A creeping sense of sadness ghosted over that smile but was gone before Ash could blink. He was about to ask about it, when Syrus silently scooped up the spilled cards and packed them into a neat pile in his hands. "Here you go," he stated gently, handing Ash the deck. Hesitantly, with constant glances given between the gesture and Syrus' face, Ash took the cards and clutched them in his hand.

"Say, Ash... Right?"

"Huh? Yeah? What is it, Syrus?"

"Could we please have a duel?" the smallish male asked, clasping his hands together above his head in a pleading gesture. Ash and Flamvell Baby exchanged glances again, then Ash returned his attention to Syrus with an enthusiastic nod, "Sure thing!"

"Great!" Syrus chirped, standing to his feet. Ash followed suit. "Actually, I have an exam coming up that I really need to pass this time. I know we just met and all, but do you think you could help me practice for it?"

"Huh? Me? I just started playing the game! I know I'll make some really dumb mistakes!"

"Oh, like I've never made any mistakes when I've dueled! I think we'll both do just fine! Especially you, Ash!"

"Aww you're flattering me! But all right! Let's go! Uh... where are we gonna go?"

Syrus giggled, and pointed above him, "The roof! We'll have plenty of room to duel there!"

"Okay!"

"Haha, last one there is a rotten Mystic Egg!" Syrus called over his shoulder as he scampered off. With a laugh, Ash moved his thumb across the edge of his nose and took off after his new friend.

OoO

Whisking winds billowed through their hair and clothing as they stood on opposing sides. Both equipped with their respective duel disks, the two of them announced the initiation of one of the greatest milestone of their lives.

"DUEL!"

"I'll begin this round!" Syrus called. He drew for his turn and glanced over his first hand. He now held a Cyber Valley, Future Fusion, Vehicroid Connection Zone, Different Dimension Reincarnation, Bottomless Trap Hole and a Shuttleroid. His eyes fluttered over the cards he was going to use this turn as he plucked them one by one and showed them to Ash before he played them on the duel disk. "First! I'm setting a card face down!" he claimed, setting the Bottomless, " Next, I'm summoning Cyber Valley (ATK 0/ DEF 0 ) face up in attack mode!" Granted, it wasn't the greatest play. The most he could get out of it on his next turn was a card draw if Ash attacked with a monster, but he wouldn't be gaining a hand advantage from it. He'd break even. But, on the other hand, card draw was something that could help him right now.

Seeing the monster's attack and defense, or rather lack thereof, Ash blinked in surprise, then laughed a bit, "Hey Syrus! Not to sound mean, because I'm just learning how to play this game too, but, you put a monster with no attack points onto the field in attack mode!" Then he shifted his eyes swiftly over to the baby as he whispered, "It IS called attack mode again, right?"

Instead of verbally replying, the tiny spirit brought a finger against its lips and shushed Ash. Then he pointed to Syrus, causing Ash's attention to travel over to the other duelist. The oceanic-haired teen gave Ash a calm, but knowing look that showed he meant business, "I'm not learning how to play this game anymore. I've been a duelist for sometime now. But I can tell from the look in your eyes that you've just started. So I'll go a little easy on you," then his tone heightened as he resumed his turn, "I play the spell card Future Fusion. It allows me to go through my deck and discard fusion material monsters listed on a fusion monster," he explained, going through his Extra Deck and withdrawing Super Vehicroid Jumbo Drill. He flashed it to Ash, then sifted through his deck for the necessary material monsters and sent them to the Graveyard, "By my next standby phase, if Future Fusion doesn't get destroyed that is, I can Special Summon my Jumbo Drill to the field by my 2nd standby phase!"

"Uhhh" Ash drawled, glancing to the baby. Understanding the gist of his gaze, the spirit sighed and crossed his little arms, "Yes, I'll help you! Somewhat...!"

Ash made a face from that remark. But some help was better than none.

"I'm done with my turn!" Syrus announced.

"Got it. Draw!" Ash proclaimed, then drew for the turn. His hand was full of monsters: Flamvell Archer, Flamvell Firedog, Flamvell Guard, Flamvell Grunika, UFO Turtle, and on his draw, Rigorous Reaver. "Hmmmmm" Ash pondered and his brows furrowed in serious scrutiny. The Firedog seemed pretty strong; he figured he should play that. "All right! I play-!" Ash began, sending his eyes to his opponent as he extracted his card for the turn, "Flamvell Firedog!" he exclaimed, slapping the card down on his disk. However, the monster that appeared was not Flamvell Firedog! Instead, it was the Flamvell Guard (ATK100/ DEF2000)... in attack mode!

"UWAAAHH!" Ash cried upon realizing his folly. His scratchy voice grated into both the baby's ears as well as Syrus'. The soft-eyed teen cringed a bit, then forced a small smile, "Erm... Sorry to say this Ash, but next time, I think it would be a better idea for you to actually look at the cards as you play them... Otherwise you may end up playing the wrong one... like now!"

"Ahhh! Can I take it back?"

"NO!" Flamvell Baby vociferated, rolling his eyes, "This'll make you pay attention to your plays! Now, continue!"

"Glll..." Ash groused. With a sigh, he ended his turn. While he could have attacked, it may have been a better idea not to, to be wary of Syrus' face down. Besides, after his little folly with summoning the wrong card, Ash didn't feel much like attacking anyway!

The short teen eyed Ash unsurely, then drew for his turn: Shuttleroid. During his standby, he brought his Super Vehicroid Jumbo Drill( ATK 3000/ DEF 2000) to the field in attack mode. Then, he normal summoned the Shuttleroid( ATK 1000/DEF 1200 ). "Well... Ordinarily, I'd scold you for that, but, since you're new to this game, I'll let that one go... So... I won't attack and let you have another chance."

"Hey, that's great! Thanks Syrus! Um let's see... " Ash wondered as he drew into a Book of Moon. First, I should turn my guard (ATK 100/DEF 2000 )into defense mode... and then I'll set a card face down.. " he speculated, setting a Spiritual Fire Art- Kurenai. His dark eyes glanced to the baby and he asked out the corner of his mouth, "Um, how does this card work again?"

"Can't you read?"

"Yeah, but I don't understand how to use it!"

"But you still set it anyway? All right all right, I'll explain it in terms for you to understand. While you have a monster on your side of the field, you can activate this trap to sacrifice the monster and send it to the graveyard. Your opponent takes burn damage equal to the monster's attack points. Got it?"

"Ummm I think so... Since I just switched my guard to defense mode, I could activate it now right?"

"No not now! You just set it! You have to wait until after you turn is over before you can activate it!"

"Uhh ok," Ash drawled. He summoned the Flamvell Firedog( ATK 1900/ DEF 200 ) in attack position, to make up for his misplay the previous turn, and set the Backfire. Excitedly, Ash pumped a fist in the air, "All right! I think I've gotten the hang of this now! Flamvell Firedog! Attack Syrus' Cyber Valley!" At Ash's command, the ebony creature howled, then leapt into the air to attack. As it reached the coiled metallic frame of the Cyber Valley, Ash flipped his Backfire trap card.

"YOU CAN'T DO THAT, I SAID!" Flamvell Baby shouted, smacking Ash in the head, "YOU JUST SET IT THIS TURN! YOU CAN'T ACTIVATE IT IN THE SAME TURN YOU SET IT UNLESS THE CARD SAYS SO! And it DIDN'T!"

"WAAAHHHHHH!" Ash wailed, foolishly trying to shield his head from the baby's onslaughts. Even Syrus had to snicker a bit from this, albeit sheepishly, "You know Ash, if this were a tournament, that misplay would have gotten you a disqualification... But since this isn't something that serious...I'll let that one go too... But that's the last one I'll give you. And also because of that misplay, I know what card you have down! But your Firedog still destroys my Cyber Valley."

As he spoke this, the canine gave a ferocious roar before taking a large bite out of the metallic snake. The creature gave a high pitched cry, then dissipated from the field in a collaboration of sparkling lights.

"All right! You take damage from that!" Ash proclaimed.

"Sorry to disappoint you, Ash, but, the effect of my Cyber Valley is when it's attacked, I can remove it from play and draw a card!" His warm eyes glanced to the card he drew off Cyber Valley's first effect: Carrieroid. That would always come in handy.

"I guess, I end my turn!" Ash stated. He may have played badly now, but he was determined to do better. On the start of Syrus' next turn, he drew a Soul Release. That could help later in the game, but for right now, it was useless. His eyes fluttered from the card over to Ash's side of the field. He had his Flamvell Guard( ATK 200/DEF 2000 ) in defense mode and his Flamvell Firedog(ATK 1900/DEF 200) in attack position. There were two set cards, with one of them already had been revealed to be a Backfire trap. If Ash used the Backfire on his next turn, he wouldn't lose much LP. But he couldn't speak the same for Ash from the attack he was going to unleash now.

"Now, I'll normal summon Carrieroid( ATK1000/DEF800 )to the field in attack mode. Next, I'll use my Jumbo Drill(ATK 3000/ DEF 2000 ) to attack your defense position Flamvell Guard!"

Ash double blinked, "Huh? Why would you do that? Why not attack the dog since it's in attack mode? I won't take any damage with a defense position monster, right?"

"With this card, you will! The special effect of my Jumbo Drill is that any monster in defense position that's lower than my drill's attack points, the difference in damage will be dealt to your life points!"

"What?"

"I told you to read" Flamvell Baby shrugged.

Sheepishly, Syrus snickered nervously and peered at Ash over the rim of his glasses, "Sorry Ash!" he apologized as Ash's guard got destroyed by the piercing tip of the drill and Ash lost 1000 LP.

( LP 4000- 1000= LP 3000 )

"Now, for my Second Main Phase, I summon Tankroid(ATK 1500/DEF 1900 ) to the field. My turn's over!"

Now standing at 3000 Life Points, Ash panicked a bit from what play to make next. Dumbfounded, he drew for the turn: Gaia Soul The Combustive Collective. While he could play it and use it's effect, it wouldn't have accumulated enough attack points to defeat Syrus' 3000 ATK monstrosity. Feeling a bit at a loss, Ash scanned over the rest of the cards in his hand and picked the Rigorous Reaver. He then clasped his hand of cards together in a pile and secured them between the edges of his lips-gingerly holding them in his mouth. In one hand, he held the Reaver and with the other hand, he made a vertical fist. He tucked his thumb beneath a fisted finger and placed the Reaver on top of his fist...

Flamvell Baby and Syrus both watched Ash concentrate rather hard on executing this next action. However, Syrus wasn't sure what to think and Flamvell Baby was just staring into space. Then he looked away for a moment and had to take a double take once it finally hit him with what Ash was actually attempting to accomplish. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" The blazing phantasm spat to an innocent looking Ash who had just literally flipped the card—allowing it to land on his duel disk face up in attack position. Innocently, the boy answered, "The card said to FLIP!"

"IDIOT!" the baby shouted, throwing bits of fire Ash's way. With a cry, the youth dodged every shot, "What'd you do that for? I flipped it, didn't I? Now I can get its effect!"

"NO YOU CAN'T MORON! Listen! The way FLIP EFFECT monsters work is you have to SET THEM FACE DOWN FIRST IN DEFEENSE POSITION! If they are attacked, or you manually turn them over on your next turn unless a card specifies otherwise, ONLY THEN will its effect GO OFF! You flip them ON THE FIELD not with your THUMB! Now you've just wasted a card for nothing!"

"I DID?"

From the way Ash seemed to be bantering back and forth to nothing but thin air, Syrus deduced his duel spirit was giving the newbie duelist quite a hard time for that terrible misplay. He couldn't help but chuckle a bit at this, "Um, Ash? Are you... sure you have an idea of how to play this game?" he asked candidly.

"Yeah I do!" Ash enthusiastically shot back. Here he was, on the verge of not only making a complete fool of himself, but he was also on a fast path to losing if he didn't think fast! But since he couldn't really do anything, he ended his turn...and inwardly pleaded for Syrus to not attack the Reaver.

"My turn. Draw," Syrus stated. 'Hmm another Different Dimension Reincarnation?' Syrus thought, adding the card to his hand. "For this turn, because I have Carrieroid, Shuttleroid and Tankroid on the field, I can Special Summon Armoroid from my Extra Deck to the field! The material monsters that I fused to make him now become my new equip monsters! But each time one of them is destroyed or removed from the field, my Armoroid loses 600 of his attack points. But, no offense, it doesn't seem like there's anything you can do to make that happen. Armoroid, attack the Flamvell Firedog!"

At his young master's command, the mechanical being charged forward with fire shooting from its feet and walloped the Firedog with one blow. Ash shielded his eyes from the fragments of light that were left of his monster as its hologram image broke into pieces. As the display subsided, Syrus felt it necessary to explain another aspect of Armoroid's effect, "Also, whenever this card destroys a monster through battle, you take damage equal to half of Armoroid's attack. So instead of 800, you take 1350!" (LP 3000 – 1350= LP 1650)

"Oh yeah! When you destroyed my Firedog, because it's a Fire attribute, I can activate Backfire! And actually have it work this time! So you lose 500 attack points!"

"I sure do!" Syrus agreed, gladly accepting the LP loss (LP 4000-500= LP 3500). Triumphant, Ash laughed to himself. Syrus nodded at this and resumed his turn, "For my Second Main Phase, I'm normal summoning Submarineroid in attack mode. My turn's over with now!"

"Right! Draw!" Ash announced, obtaining a Backdraft trap card on his plus one, "I'm setting one card face down and...putting another one...and another one face down back here..." he surmised primitively, as he placed a UFO Turtle in defense mode and set his Book of Moon and Backdraft. "Uhh I guess I should remove this then..." Ash hesitated, beginning to pick up his Backfire to put in the Graveyard when Flamvell Baby smacked him upside the back of his spiky head again, "That card stays! It has a continuous symbol on it, see?"

"Say wut?" Ash wondered, peering at the card with perplexed uncertainty, "Oh you mean those two zeros meshed together? That's what that means?"

"YES. It means it's a Continuous Trap and doesn't leave the field unless it's destroyed. So each time on your turn, when this card is still here, you can use its effect. Or if it's a trigger effect like this one is, you HAVE to."

"Oh! Well in that case, I'll end my turn! It's your turn, Syrus!"

"Thank you, Ash," Syrus smiled faintly and drew for the turn: A 3rd Different Dimension Reincarnation. His brows raised in confusion from why his deck was giving him these bizarre draws, but he went along with it anyway. After all he had 2 of his fusion monsters on the field at the ready: Super Vehicroid Jumbo Drill (ATK 3000/ DEF 2000) and Armoroid( ATK 2700/ DEF 2000 ). He also had a Submarineroid (ATK 800/ DEF 1800 ) ready for action. But instead of attacking Ash directly with it, he decided to have his Armoroid attack Ash's face down UFO Turtle instead. And due to one of Armoroid's special abilities, Ash lost another 1350 of his Life Points (LP1650-1350= LP300) Things weren't looking very good for Ash! And the proud look on Syrus' face boasted a hefty testament to his near win. However, because of UFO Turtle's effect, Ash could search his deck for a Fire attribute monster with attack points of 1500 or less, and fetched a Magna Drago to put into face up attack mode.

On Ash's next turn, he drew A Blazing Inpachi. For his turn play, he normal summoned Gaia Soul The Combustive Collective ( ATK 2000/ DEF 0 ). He could at least take out the Submarineroid with this...

"Wait a minute!" Ash suddenly exclaimed. The other two observed him with their own respective looks of peculierlarity towards the energetic boy as he brought the card he drew close to his face. He murmed to himself the effect over and over until he finally got an idea. His mind played back the words Flamvell Baby said to him about Tribute Summons that dealth with card effects as opposed to summoning a bigger monster.

"All right!" Ash exclaimed, slapping Gaia Soul The Combustive Collective onto the field in attack mode. Syrus' eyes studied the appearing creature. It had the callous flesh of a mutated blister with one leering eye near its apex. This thing looked like it was the regurgitation of some poor partially-digested animal and caused the fair-skinned teen to cringe.

"What is that thing?" Syrus asked, taking a cautios step back. To this, Ash pointed fevorently to the monster with a broad smile on his face, "This here is Gaia Soul The Combustive Collective! Weird name, huh? I can sacrafice upto 2 of my fire monsters in order to increase its attack by 1000 points each! Haha, awesome!" he summarized, sending his Magna Drago and Rigorous Reaver to the Graveyard. From their contribution of spirits, Gaia Soul The Combustive Collective gained 2000 more attack points, giving it 3000 ATK total.

"Yeah!" Ash cheered, "Now I can attack any one of your monsters!"

"Don't attack the drill!" Flamvell Baby urged, "If you do, since they share the same attak points, both your blob here and the drill will both be destroyed!"

"Oh... Well... in that case, I'll have him attaaaack... Armoroid! And when he does battle damage, I'll activate Backdraft!After that I'll end my turn!" With that, the grotesque entity teleported to Armoroid and glared at it. A mystical ray from its eye shot out and covered its opponent entirely. After a few flashes, the confined Armoroid was dragged down into the depths of the unknown, and Gaia Soul The Combustive Collective followed suit. Syrus took his second dose of damage for the duel and instead of taking a mere 300 from the difference between the monsters' ATK, he instead took a whopping 3000 thanks to the Backdraft trap card. (LP 3500- 3000= LP 500). With both monsters gone from the field, the roids equipped to Armoroid were destroyed and joined their leader in the Graveyard.

"Excellently played Ash," Syrus complimented.

"Haha, yeah that was pretty cool wasn't it?"

"And now you're down a powerful monster...good job..." Flamvell Baby sarcastically uttered.

"Huh? Oh no! It doesn't come back!" Ash cried. Despite him making possibly another mistake, Syrus took his turn anyway. He recieved a Cyber Dragon on his draw and set Vehicroid Connection Zone as a decoy. He kept 2 Mystical Space Typhoons in his deck, and right about now he was both cursing them and wondering where they were at a time like this! "Jumbo Drill! Attack Ash's Magna Drago!" Syrus shouted.

"Uh um, not so fast, Syrus!" Ash exclaimed, nervously flipping over his Book of Moon. Jumbo Drill instantly paused in it's attack and humbled itself into a rather dflated defense position. It almost appeared as if it had broken down. When a monster is targeted by Book of Moon, it is switched to face down defense mode. When a card is of that status, it doesn't know what of card it is. Any equipments it may have get destroyed from it in this way usually. There are some special exceptions, but none of that mattered for the Jumbo Drill at this moment. Syrus had no choice but to end his turn. Since he already attacked with the drill for his attack phase and nothing else, he couldn't attack again with Submarineroid.

On Ash's turn, he drew into Oil and played it, getting back Gaia Soul The Combustive Collective. He sacrificed his Magna Drago to it to raise its ATK to 3000 and destroyed the Jumbo Drill (ATK 3000/ DEF 2000). At the end of Ash's turn, same as before, the Gaia Soul was destroyed, as described in its card effect. For Syrus' turn, he played it safe by, impatiently, sacrificing his Submarineroid for Tribute Summon his Cyber Dragon. If Jaden or Alexis caught him making a desperate play like that, he'd never hear the end of it until the end of the next school semester. He also set Power Wall and ended his turn. The reason he didn't attack was out of cautiousness of Ash's set cards. He didn't want to run into anything else that would spell major trouble for him again, if he could help it.

When it was Ash's turn, he drew into a Rekindling but played his Blazing Inpachi in attack mode instead for unknown reasons. Perhaps his reasoning revolved around how awesome he thought the card's art looked. Flamvell Baby didn't say a word. He was too astounded to even bother to communicate with this kid right now. He was surprised that Syrus didn't just end it already. While that didn't happen, the aquatic-haired teen activated Bottomless Trap Hole, sending the Blazing Inpachi to its demise. For Ash's Second Main Phase, he played the Rekindling, bringing back Flamvell Firedog (ATK 1900/ DEF 200) and Gaia Soul The Combustive Collective (ATK 2000/ DEF 0 ) as Special Summons. And like before, Ash tributed his Flamvell Firedog to his Gaia Soul, increasing its ATK to 3000 once again. This was becoming a bad habit! Nevertheless, Ash declared his attack anyway.

To this, Syrus activated his Power Wall trap. In a fit of fear, the frantic teen ended up dumping nearly his entire deck into the Graveyard to reduce the damage by 100 ATK points with each card sent. 30 discarded cards later, Syrus was left with 8 cards for his deck. But he had negated the damage entirely. Now, Ash had no monsters on his side of the field, so he Normal Summoned the Flamvell Grunika he had held onto since the beginning of the game.

"My turn!" Syrus exclaimed, drawing his next card. He gave a nervous sigh as he laid eyes on the Kiteroid and hoped it could help him dangle for dear life in some way. Obviously unsettled, Syrus fumbled for his next cards to play. "F-First, I'm going to use Soul Release to remove from play my Submarineroid, Steamroid and Drillroid! Next, I'll play all of my D.D.R.'s. By discarding 3 cards from my hand, I can use each D.D.R. to attatch to Submarineroid, Steamwoid and Drillroid and Special Summon them to the field in attack mode! By doing this, I've filled up my trap and spell zone, but that won't matter from what I'm about to do!"

"What? There's more?" Ash cried.

"Calm down," Flamvell Baby suggested, "He's getting desperate. Just pay attention to what he's doing and even you can pull through this!"

"Hmm!" Ash nodded; equally determined as he was wary, "C'mon Syrus! Show me what you got!"

"That's the plan..." Syrus replied with a certain look in his eyes that cast him in a rather impish light, "Since all the roids on my side of the field are machine s, I can merge them with Cyber Dragon to form the fusion monster, Chimeratech Fortress Dragon(ATK 0/ DEF 0)! And because of its special ability, its attack gets a boost from how many monsters I used to fuse it with multiplied by 1000! So now, it has 4000 attack points! (ATK 4000/ DEF 0 )

"What? No way!" Ash shouted, to which Flamvell Baby reassured him yet again, "Wait for it, Ash! You can still win this!"

"How?"

"Watch...!"

With a shaky hand, Syrus gestured towards Ash. With a wavering bellow, he instructed his giant armored dragon to attack. The dragon gave a robotic hiss before its lengthy body swam through the air and headed directly for Ash.

"Wh-what do I do?" Ash cried, looking around the field. Then, his face down trap card crossed his line of vision. He had forgotten what it was, but in a last ditch resort, he activated it anyway. As he did, a wailing growl erupted from Flamvell Grunika as its image dissipated into a burst of colors and light as it was destroyed. The action was so intense that Ash had to shield his eyes from it.

After the collection of light and rays of photon dimmed, Ash reopened his eyes and his mouth went wide at what he saw. Syrus was on his knees with a look of shock across his features as his dragon broke into seperated shards of itself; each fragment fading away in its entirety. Then ultimately, his Life Points dropped to zero. Ash had won the duel! And by complete fluke!

The trap he played at the last second was Spiritual Fire Art- Kurenai. By sacraficing a Fire monster on one's side of the field, the attack opponent takes damage equal to the total attack of the tributed monster. Since Ash had Flamvell Grunika on the field, and it was a Fire , its sacrafice triggered the effects of the trap to conclude before Syrus' dragon's attack could reach a target. Thus, Ash depleted Syrus' Life Points by 1700, which completely made him the winner. Since the duel was over, Syrus' dragon was destroyed, no longer having a use by its felled master this duel.

"I... lost?" Syrus barely squeaked out. Astonished, he looked to his deck that he had combined his brother's cards along with ones that he preferred and cradled them and his duel disk to his heart. Although he failed winning this duel, he knew deep down that he did not fail his brother. He was going to keep dueling and stay strong no matter what.

"HAHA! Did you see that?" Ash cheered to Flamvell Baby. The smallish spirit merely humphed, "I TOLD you to watch! See kid, even I believed in you. Somewhat..."

"Awww Flamvell Babyyyyyyy!" Ash laughed; his tone suggesting 'You can give me a little more credit than that!' "But without your help, I probably would have lost."

"Yep"

"Huh? AWW! I forgot!" Ash cried, turning to Syrus, who was now climbing to his feet. As the thin youth raised his eyes, he saw Ash standing directly in front of him with a hand outstretched. "Hey, thanks for the duel, Syrus! It was pretty close, wasn't it?"

Syrus' lips parted and he drew in a breath. He wanted to say, "I went so easy on you that I practically let you win!" but instead, he held his non polite words, regardless of the possible truth they may have held and took Ash's hand. The two shared a handshake atop the grounds of their battlefield- parting ways as that of friends.

Starving, Ash left the roof in search for the cafeteria. Silently, Syrus watched him go until his form disappeared from sight. Thoughtfully, the soft-eyed boy drifted his glistening orbs upto the heavens above. With the clouds in his sights, he took this loss as an inclination to take himself more seriously as a person as well as a duelist. Also, one day, he hoped that he would be able to form a bond with duel spirits like his best buddy Jaden and his new friend, Ash.

Fun fun! Ash was a blast to write for lol

-Mel


	2. Misty vs Ryou

_**A/N: Story idea, concept and story credit go to JohnnyD2. All characters Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, and any other company licensed and owned characters and concepts are property of their respective owners and we do not own them!**_

OoO

**Duel Dimensions**

**Chapter 7**

OoO

"Pikachu! There you are!" Misty chirped the moment her eyes fell on her animal companion bounding towards her. Her beryl eyes glimmered with surprise and merit and she outstretched her arms to greet the electric mouse. "Pika pi!" the yellow creature cried as it dashed towards its friend. With a vibrant giggle, Misty lowered herself to one knee and welcomed Pikachu into a warm embrace. Eagerly she hugged the animal to her chest as if she had just been reunited with a forgotten fragment of her distant past, "I'm so glad to see you! I thought you got left behind! Did you get here all by yourself?" she asked in soothing motherly tones. "Pi! Chu!" it replied, snuggling against Misty's chest before flashing its tongue out to tickle against her cheek. Misty couldn't help but laugh from the creature's behavior. She missed Pikachu just as much. "Haha, yeah I'm really glad to see you too, hahaha!"

"Chu!"

"Umm... Uh..." Mokuba trailed off. Bearing witnessing to their... "reunion", he felt rather ignored and out of place—among other things. All throughout his life, he had seen holograms of monsters, bewitching women and cute fluffy creatures. He'd seen many an encounter with all of them with varying results and interactions but never in his life had he ever seen such a tethered bond between a young female and her beastly companion such as this. If he hadn't overheard Misty's words, he would have thought she and that Pokemon had quite a few encounters to- okay that was enough off those thoughts!

Roughly, the younger Kaiba shook his head to clear it from such creeping musings, as well to minimize the blooming blush he started to gain about his cheeks. Not only was this visage...interesting, to say the least, it also gave way to the rare sighting of a Pokemon. An actual Pokemon, and not a speculated hologram that his brother may have come up with. That was when the reasonings for Mokuba to find Ash or Misty returned to him. He was on a mission here and he would not fail!They needed to get to his brother quickly.

"Uh... " the boy hesitated. Nervously, he slipped his hands behind the back of his head and crossed one leg over the other. To an ignorant person uneducated with his way of portraying certain emotions, he seemed rather casual. But in actuality, he was quite reluctant to have to be the one to break up their pleasant meeting. But, his big brother put him in charge and counted on him to be able to carry this out, so Mokuba had little choice but to make his brother proud. Taking in a deep breath, he finally found his voice, "Hey, Misty!"

"Hahaa oh! Mm yes?" she questioned. Her large jewel-toned eyes peered up at him expectantly; searching for the reason of his urgency in his own. And almost instantly, Mokuba's boyish blush returned. He couldn't keep looking at this girl like this. He would quickly forget his own name from the way he easily became spirited away within her invigorating eyes. Annoyed with himself, he turned his back to her and crossed his arms, "Look, not to sound mean or anything, but we really ought to keep going. In a few hours, it'll be sunset and I don't like to keep my big brother waiting."

Silently, Misty paused while the meaning of his words sunk in. Immediately, she then stood to her feet with Pikachu gingerly held to her chest like some sort of dear treasure, "Mokuba..." she began in an even tone.

"What is it?" he replied, glancing over his shoulder.

Misty knew the reason for his behavior. Someone had a crush on her. It was a nice ego boost, but she paused the thought from her mind and approached him, " How far away is your big brother? And what's his name?"

"Seto Kaiba," Mokuba responded stoically, turning on his heels to face her. His lengthy messy locks fanned about the outline of his frame as he moved and he rested his arms at his sides. His cool eyes brimmed with an intensity that only the respect for his brother could bring out. All of his childishness and schoolyard crushes towards Misty became instantly nonexistent in the presence of how highly he always spoke of his brother, "He's the greatest duelist ever in Domino City! No one can beat him. Well...except for one guy, but it doesn't matter compared to everyone else that challenges my brother and fails! He's one of the strongest and the best duelist I've ever seen and he's MY brother."

"I see. You really admire him, don't you?"

"Yep," he nodded.

The young girl smiled, and stemming from that was a veil of understanding and acceptance from the shorter teen. Faintly, he returned the expression and slowly, the two of them began to fall into step with the other. Mokuba led the way to Kaiba Corp and the two of them shared strings of conversations. They spoke of their families, their likes, and an assortment of other things that fell under the category of everything and nothing all at once.

Once the topics between them subdued, Misty adverted her conversations to the appeased Pikachu resting in her arms. Its ears flickered lightly and it gave bright peppy responses, despite how relaxed it was. Then she shifted her attention to Blizzed, who appeared to be staring strangely at the sky the entire trip thus far. Discreetly they swapped words and concerns. After Blizzed had said all that it was going to for the moment, Misty returned her attention to a rather puzzled Mokuba who looked at her as if she had just lost her mind.

"What...who are you talking to, Misty?"

"I...I was...talking to myself! Thinking out-loud!"

"Huh... You were answering yourself too... Are you sure you're not crazy...?"

A flicker of rage brewed over her features from this comment; a nerve obviously being plucked. But since she had just met this boy, she didn't want to bite his head off so soon. After all, it was no good trying to be friends with someone you beat to a pulp, "Of course! Why wouldn't I be sure?"

"I've seen some crazy people...and you don't look it, but you certainly do stand out around here..."

Misty cringed as she felt another pang of anger. Curious, Pikachu drifted its eyes upto her just in time to see her grind her teeth together. Luckily, Mokuba's back was turned to her so he saw none of this. Doubly luckily for him, they finally reached Kaiba Corp.

"We're here," he stated, turning his head to look at her. Happily, she tossed him her best winning smile and walked ahead of him through the front doors, "Thank you for leading us here, Mokuba!"

"Um... yeah... sure thing..." he trailed off as his eyes studied her form while she passed him. As she did, his body suddenly felt cold and he shivered. Now inside of the building, Misty grit her teeth some more; her eyes blazing with flecks of fury, "Calling me crazy... of all the- can you believe that guy?" she murmured under her breath.

"Pika?" Pikachu questioned, peering up at the girl with one ear tilting towards the sound of her voice while the other lay dormant. "It's nothing... Now all we have to do I guess, is meet with this Seto person and then be on our way. Maybe we'll have enough time to meet up with Ash before the day is over, Pikachu! Would you like that?"

"PiiiiiKA chu!" it tilled in reply, twitching its ears. It missed its trainer tremendously. Misty allowed a giggle to pass from the creature's cuteness, then gave all her focus to Mokuba as he walked ahead of her towards the elevators.

"These elevators only go but so far," he informed in a professional tone, "They all only go upto a certain floor unless you key in the proper code. Once you do that, you'll have access to different floors depending on which code you used. For Seto's office, I always put in this one," he continued. Next to the up and down buttons was a small keypad that shared a jumble of partial letters, short words, numbers, directions and even shapes. With honest curiosity, Misty leaned in close to watch what input Mokuba was about to key in, so that she could remember it. Softly, she gave Pikachu a light squeeze to gain its attention, and whispered to it, "You make sure you remember too, okay?"

"Chu!"

Mokuba chortled faintly at how cute they were together, then punched in the appropriate code: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start.

A telltale "jingle!" confirmed the entry was correct and authorized and the doors opened almost instantaneously. "Heh heh" Mokuba grinned while rubbing his nose, "Every time I hear that sound, I'm reminded of Contra. I love getting the weapon power ups but Seto prefers using Simon Belmont..."

"Um what?" Misty inquired, nearly gawking at the boy from the cryptic message he just spoke. "Huh?" Mokuba blinked, "You don't pl-" he stopped himself before he embarrassed himself even more and simply stepped into the elevator. Dumbfounded, Misty and Pikachu exchanged looks, shrugs, then followed suit after Mokuba.

OoO

The moment Misty stepped foot into the office, her vivid eyes flickered about every wall, decoration and corner of the room before settling on the older male on the phone before her. Fair skin enhanced by dark mahogany tresses was the first attribute to catch her attention. He appeared rather poised in his white business attire. It wasn't until he lifted his attention from the neatly stacked papers and pieces of machinery atop his desk that she got a good look at his glacial blue eyes.

Those frigid degrees were laced with a faraway look while his mouth almost mechanically moved in response to the telephone conversation he was having. Although his eyes seemed to be in her particular direction, they weren't focused on her in the slightest. An odd air settled between them until Mokuba spoke up from behind Misty, "This is the girl from earlier," he introduced, gesturing towards her. His tone suggested he had seen her somewhere before today in some way, but Misty did not pick up on it. Instead, she took a step forward and waved cutely at Seto. Although he hadn't shown her much respect, that didn't mean that she wasn't going to offer some, "Hi there! My name is Misty!" she smiled.

The stoic CEO barely spared her a second glance; his focus veering downwards to the electric mouse in her arms. And to further the disrespect, his eyes trailed over to the left of her, lingered there momentarily, then returned his eyes to his work. A jolt of anger sparked throughout Misty and she visibly bristled. That man did not just look straight through her did he? What was with these two brothers anyway? They were both starting to irritate her to no end!

Noticing her attempt to suppress wanting to jump over that desk and axe kick that man in the head, Mokuba snickered a bit and whispered, "It's ok. Big brother is usually like this, especially towards people he doesn't know that well."

"And that's the problem!" Misty whispered back out the corner of her mouth, "If he treats people like they're nothing, how can he hope to get to know anyone well?"

"That's just the way he is. Besides he's got me! He's fine!"

"While I can appreciate the honesty, the two of you may as well speak to the other normally instead of making spectacles of yourselves," Seto spoke calmly. Both Misty and Mokuba exchanged looks before leading their eyes over to Seto. "Aaaand on that note, I'm gonna leave. I'll be in the next room if you need anything, Seto, " Mokuba offered. With that, he about faced and began to head out the door, "See ya, Misty."

"Bye."

As soon as he left, Seto hung up the phone and propped his elbows up on the desk. He steepled his long fingers together and glared at the girl; boreal eyes burrowing into her soul, " That is a Pokemon, correct?"

"Yeah. How'd you know?"

"Research," he replied simply, "I'm pretty sure that 'Pocket Monsters' is not their scientific title. But for understanding purposes, I will refer to them as you do as 'Pokemon'."

To this, Misty's eyes widened and she hugged Pikachu closer in a protective manner,"What kind of research? You aren't someone who tries to hurt them by experimenting on them, are you?"

Seto was silent as the response to her childish question circled in his head. A frown took form on his lips and he narrowed his eyes at her. Misty flinched slightly. She didn't know who this guy thought he was, but he was beginning to act like a real jerk. But still, she let the words she wanted to say to him wilt on her tongue, "How do you know about Pokemon anyway? I haven't seen any in this world since we arrived here."

"Because there are none," he countered flatly in monotone, "The one you're holding is the only one that I've seen with my own eyes."

"And just what do you need Pikachu for?"

"Relax. I'm not going to harm it."

"How can I relax? I don't know anything about this place and I know even less about you! You had your little brother seek me out and drop me off on your doorstep so you could glare at me and lie to me about knowing about races of creatures that don't even exist in this town? That's really low!"

"Look. Misty. I didn't have you brought here to hear your complaining. And for your information, I've already known about Pokemon. I've even begun creating a machine that will be able to record their data and replicate it onto a playing card."

"Are you going to steal their souls? Their spirits? That's murder!"

"Calm down, and listen to me! You're jumping to conclusions! I said I wouldn't harm them!"

"And you expect me to just believe you? Not only are you a complete and rude jerk, but you're a sadist too!"

Kaiba was offended by this remark, but he masked the emotion well, "If I'm such a sadist, then shouldn't you be screaming in pain from the horrible things that I'm inflicting on you right now?"

"Don't act cute with me! You called me here for a reason and that means you need me for something. So far, I'm not liking you very much!"

"Misty..." Blizzed's frosty voice spoke. Angry, Misty darted her eyes to the spirit at the left of her. She didn't give a verbal reply. She knew if she had, Kaiba probably would have thought she was talking to herself. Instead, no matter how difficult it was for her to do right now, Misty kept her mouth shut and listened to what her companion had to say. Keen to this, Blizzed nodded and continued its words, "I believe it best to hear the young lad out. There is honest to his words and, while he may seem cold, he would not be one to cause the type of atrocities you are accusing him of."

Misty lowered her eye-lids halfway in a dubious fashion. She didn't want to believe Blizzed, even if a lot of the things she said were just off the top of her head. She really did know nothing about him and it frustrated her because she didn't know how to cover any ground with him when there was a gaping void where the ground should be. Pouting, she glanced to Seto. Sourly, she admitted an apology.

Seto shrugged it off with a "Whatever"

"I'm trying to be nice to you..." she forced out. Seto smirked faintly at this, and rose from his chair, "Better. I'll show you what I've accumulated so far with the machinery. And don't you dare tell anyone else about what you saw here today. This discussion, this meeting, never happened. Understand?"

"...Fine" Misty stated a little too wistfully. Although his words carried the lining of a threat, she was rather glad to have a reason to forget all about him and get on with her life.

"Oh, and one more thing," Seto added over his shoulder. A daring gleam wavered in his frigid orbs as a challenging smirk touched his lips, "It might be a good idea to pay attention to your duel spirit. He knows what he's talking about."

Misty nearly blanched from this revelation and stole a quick look to Blizzed. The noble-looking fowl glanced to her before uncomfortably clearing his throat, "No, I didn't share this information with you because you never asked me."

About half an hour later, Misty finally took her leave from Seto's office. Silently, he watched her leave. His mind teemed with thoughts and possibilities he could gain and put towards his company with the knowledge she had about Pokemon. The concept was fascinating—probably because it the concept of such battling animals was very similar to Duel Monsters itself. But all of that, along with his plan, could fall into place at a later date. Due to her visit, he had the information he needed.

"Thank you for believing my words, Seto," an airy and soothing voice drifted from beside him. Seconds later, the wispy image of a woman long immersed within his past, who now bore the wings of the glorious dragon inside of her soul, unraveled into view. Her skin was pale as a sheet. Her composed face was elegantly decorated with her exotic features; her ethereal icy eyes drizzled in remorse. Thin tresses of ivory caressed her bare shoulders and tapered down her back, over her dragon tail, and framed at tops of her calves.

If it were odd to believe that Seto Kaiba of all individuals would be so open to beings such as duel spirits without denying their realism, the presence of the Blue Eyes, Kisara's herself, would contribute to the reason why. Seto could see duel spirits. Finding that out lead to nothing but absurdity. But ironically enough, while he could see them, Mokuba could not. Upon a firsthand experience, he could see that Yūgi, as well as Yami, the ancient phantasm of a pharaoh that shared his body, could see and speak with them as well. Seto had made no public knowledge of this when he first realized it. He thought he was going insane and contacted the one person he thought could help him in this delusional dilemma.

While Ishizu could sense the presence of duel spirits, she could not see, nor interact with them. The best advice she could give him was to speak to the Pharaoh and enlist his help. Needless to say, Seto was not too crazy about that idea. Going to one's rival for help that he could obtain in some way himself seemed redundant. But he knew that if he were left to his own devices and thoughts, he really would drive himself insane. So instead of taking Ishizu's advice, he decided to figure out his own way.

After countless sleepless nights of ignoring the callings of his own duel spirit, he finally gave in. While his focus was immersed in crafting ideas to help enhance Duel Monsters as a whole, the gentle tones of Kisara's voice floated into his subconscious. Upon actually being willing to witness the saddened spirit, he was astounded to see it resemble both a Blue Eyes White Dragon, as well as a wearing a face he remembered, yet couldn't place where he had seen it. The only word in his mind at that point was "Beautiful". Without realizing, he soon began to open his heart a little more, day by day to this spirit. When he actually accepted her for what she was as an entity, she informed him of danger and to prepare for the advent of a new gateway that may open up. Naturally, he wanted to refuse this type of bizarre and scientifically unexplainable information, let alone know what her sources were. But it was then, in that moment in time that Kisara informed him of the "Pokemon" world.

Since it seemed like he could do something great for his business to allow wider elements to the card game, then he would be eager towards the merging of battles and duels of both worlds. He had set out security and cameras everywhere via satellite in hopes of catching glimpse of such happenings or spies. When Ash and Misty were transported into this world, the satellite cameras picked up sightings of Pikachu first, then Ash and Misty.

In actuality, Mokuba was the one who saw Misty first and admitted to her beauty—through his eyes anyway. Kaiba gave no reply and made a few calls for someone to inform him on Misty and Ash's whereabouts. Who knows, perhaps he even enlisted Chazz to act as a diversion and to silently choose which one would be a good candidate to train, while another would be interrogated. Misty was just the "lucky" one.

"You're welcome..." Seto uttered without much passion. A beautiful smile graced Kisara's features and just as she made herself visible to him, she disappeared. After she did, Seto contacted his security team to discreetly keep eyes on Misty in any ways they saw fit. He did allow her to leave with valuable information after all. Then he resumed his work. Not a moment later than he had sat down in his swivel chair did the phone ring. On the half of the second ring, he answered it with a curt, "Kaiba" Once he heard the familiar vocals of his rival, Seto snorted and glanced at his clock, "It's about time you called..."

"I will be arriving shortly for our regularly scheduled duel, Kaiba. Moreover, Ishizu informed me that there was something you wanted to speak with me about? Dealing with duel spirits?"

Seto frowned and avoided the subject altogether, "Be ready to lose when you get here," was all he responded with before hanging up the phone.

Like the tinkling of chimes in the wind, somewhere in the room, he heard Kisara laugh lightly from his behavior.

OoO

"Well that felt like a complete waste of time!" Misty huffed, hugging Pikachu close. The small animal barely flicked its ears in response to her voice while it rested I her cradle. Blizzed's silence mirrored that of Pikachu's as he followed behind Misty on his mighty legs.

"Ugh... dealing with guys like that make me thirsty!" she complained. Shutting her eyes, she sighed and shook her head. Her frizzy orange locks bounced and fluttered gingerly against her face as she did so. The glare of the evening sun tinged her skin and made her feel much hotter than what the temperature actually was.

"Thirsty? That sounds odd," Blizzed finally spoke, "Even for a human."

"Oh, look, there's a park over there! I can see the water fountain from here!" Misty exclaimed, cutting off Blizzed's remark altogether. Whether she meant to do it on purpose or not was up for speculation. "Let's go!" she announced, and dashed off towards the fountain. After a good few gulps of water, and allowing a now awakened Pikachu to drink, she let out a whoosh of air and laughed, "Ahhhh much better now. And since we're here, why don't we have a little fun on the swings?"

"Piiika!" Pikachu enthused.

Blizzed blinked at her, "I will leave that to the two of you...if you don't mind."

"See you them Blizzed!" she called. She allowed Pikachu to drop from her arms and warned it to stay close to Blizzed. On her way to the swings, she caught glimpse of a young man that completely stood out to her. Slender body, ghastly white hair and translucent fair skin swathed a dark outfit. To say the least, he was alluringly mysterious looking. Blushing faintly, Misty approached him to say hello. The boy looked at her; eyes wide and wary. Then in the next second, they were warm and very welcoming. "Hello, there, miss," he greeted politely; the hint of a British accent in his breathy voice.

"Um... hi! I'm Misty and I'm new here. What's your name?"

"Ryou" he smiled. His eyes seemed to study hers for a moment before trailing down over the bright colored top she wore, lacing over the rim of her azure shorts, to the device on her arm. A duel disk, of course. He asked a rather redundant question, "Do you play?"

"Hm?" she blinked.

"Duel Monsters?"

"Oh! Yes, I do. I guess you could call it playing," she chuckled a bit with a slight shrug, "I just started recently..."

"Wow, that's excellent news. Would you like to duel with me? I'd be awfully chuffed if you would. "

"Huh?" she questioned, tilting her head to the side. Not only was she trying to figure out his slang, but his behaviors, while gentle, were deceitfully advancing."You're certainly being awfully forward and friendly, aren't you?"

"Oh, sorry...! But, please, could we? It's not everyday I see a pretty girl like you with a duel disk."

Misty blushed and waved the compliment away, "Awww you're just saying that to make me feel good! Well, it's working! All right, Ryou. You've got yourself a duel!"

"Thank you!"

OoO

While Misty was prepared for a duel, something she had not readied herself for was to follow some stranger she had just met through a graveyard! Granted, there was still a bit of daylight out, but the idea was still a tad unsettling.

"Is this an actual graveyard?" She questioned, rubbing her arms in trepidation. Frantically, she looked around to make sure no random corpse would pop out of an even more random open casket. Leading her through the place, Ryou snickered a little, then faced her with a reassuring expression, "Oh! No! Nothing like a REAL graveyard! It's only novelty. It's used for Halloween and such!" he laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head, "Besides, bringing a girl to graveyard alone for any kind of bonding is a terrible place! Especially as a first date. Ah- n-not that I'm implying that the two of us are going on a date!" he sputtered, lowering his head in embarrassment. Luckily for him, Misty found his verbal fumbling amusing and laughed. Seeing her appear so amused, Ryou soon found himself chuckling as well. After a few moments, their laughter subsided and the seriousness of the approaching duel enveloped them.

"Are you ready, Misty?"

"You bet I am! I'll start, ok?"

"Of course," Ryou chuckled, "Ladies first!"

"DUEL!" they both shouted.

"For my first turn, I'll play Medallion of the Ice Barrier. It allows me to get one Ice Barrier monster from my deck and add it to my hand," Misty stated, bringing a Dai-sojo of the Ice Barrier to join with Salvage, General Gantala of the Ice Barrier, General Raiho of the Ice Barrier, General Grunard of the Ice Barrier and her first turn draw of Cryomancer of the Ice Barrier. She selected the Salvage with the tips of her fingers and set it face down. This way, she could test her new opponent to see what kind of player he was, "I'll set a card and then I'll play Cryomancer of the Ice Barrier in attack mode ( ATK 1300/ DEF 0 ). That ends my turn."

"That was great, Misty!" Ryou cheered; sounding like a true smitten adolescent with a crush, "My turn, now," he announced before glancing over his hand, "Hmmm. Say uh... Misty... I'm sorry to do this... I hope you didn't have anything in your hand that you liked..."

"Huh? Why is that?"

"Because I'm getting rid of it with Card Destruction," he meekly addressed, showing her the card.

"Oh... That's ok. I didn't really have anything I could have used right away anyway haha" she giggled politely. Besides, she already had in play the cards she really wanted to use. She just needed one more Ice Barrier monster in play and she could fend off any offense over level 4. And if her Cryromancer was destroyed, she could use Salvage to bring it back after getting another monster in the Graveyard with 1500 or less ATK. Both players discarded their hands and drew a new one with the same number equal to the ones they relinquished.

Skimming his new hand over, Ryou's placid expression withered to a rather somber one. Steadily, his brown eyes glided towards the girl; giving Misty an unreadable look. And from being in a graveyard surrounded by crooked tombstones and open graves, that look only heightened her apprehensiveness. Just a little.

A sample of huskiness reverberated in his throat as he chose his words, "Sorry about this, Misty, but I need to ask... is that a trap card?"

"What?"

The sudden maturity in his tone continued. He almost sounded like someone else. Almost. "The card you have set, is it a trap? If it isn't, I'm afraid I win this turn..."

"But! It's only your first turn!" she retorted unconvincingly, "You have to be bluffing! There's no way you can have this game one already!"

"Ahhh I'm sorry, Misty! I mean it, I am! But, I have to keep going! Sorry! I'm normal summoning Zombie Master (ATK 1800/ DEF 0/ 4 stars)and using its effect to discard a Pyramid Turtle to bring back my Plaguespreader Zombie ( ATK 400/ DEF 200/ 2 stars) that was gotten rid of from Card Destruction. Also, because Plaguespreader Zombie is a Tuner monster, I can merge him with a non-Tuner monster by adding up the exact number of stars. Doing this, allows me to create a Synchro Summon!" he proclaimed. From the mention of his actions, the two monsters ascended into the air( Zombie Master/ 4 stars + Plaguespreader Zombie/ 2 stars= 6 stars). A beam of ivory light passed through them and assimilated with their bodies, casting them in a transparent glow as they merged.

"What! Wait a minute! Blizzed didn't teach me about those...!" Misty shouted, more so to herself than Ryou. Annoyed, she cursed the duel spirit in her mind. He was really going to get it when she found him!

"That allows me to bring out Revived King Ha Des! ( ATK 2450/ DEF 0/ 6 stars )" he continued, smiling faintly as his new monster lowered from the air and crossed its arms upon its descent. "Also for this turn, I'll play Book of Life to reclaim my Goblin Zombie ( ATK 1100/ DEF 1050/ 4 stars) that was also discarded. And by using Plaguespreader Zombie's ( ATK 400/ DEF 200/ 2 stars) special ability, I can bring him back to the field as a Special Summon as long as I return a card from my hand to the top of my deck and I remove him from play once he leaves the field. Next, I'll Synchro Summon again for another Revived King Ha Des ( ATK 2450/ DEF 0 ). And due to Goblin Zombie's effect, when it's sent from the field to the Graveyard, I can add one Zombie type monster with 1200 or less defense from my deck to my hand. And I choose another Zombie Master."

"W-what? Hey wait! This is all too much!"

"To play it safe, and to make sure I don't waste any attack points, I'm playing Tribute to the Doomed. By discarding a card from my hand, I'm able to destroy one monster on the field...And I choose your Cryomancer. Now," he paused, giving her a serious look, "I'll ask again. Are you sure the card you set is not a trap card?"

"..." There was no point in her saying much of anything now. She already felt terrible, knowing she was going to lose on just his first turn. And Ryou merely confirmed it.

"Because now, you will lose," he advised softly. He then raised a hand and signaled his monsters to be at the ready, "Please, attack her directly."

With various sounds of acceptance towards the order, both monsters advanced towards Misty with their weapons, claws and dark magic alike, prepared. The defeated girl let out a scream as her life points were assaulted and its value shrank to zero ( LP 4000- 4900 overkill damage = LP 0 ).

"Uggh! No! I can't believe it!" she shrieked, "In only one turn! It's actually possible to do that in this game?"

"Y-yeah it is...!"

"You didn't cheat did you?" Misty accused, storming over to Ryou with a sharp finger aimed directly at him. Nervous, he took a step back and let her poke him in the chest with her accusations.

"Again, I'm really sorry I had to do that! But I do prefer to win when I can, you know!" he attempted to force a laugh but it sounded as unsure and shaky as he was. Not getting any satisfaction from this, Misty let out an irritated guttural sound and turned to her back to him. Arms on her haunches, she started to walk away from him.

"Misty? Wait! where are you going?"

"Away!"

"Don't leave yet! It was just a duel!" Ryou pleaded, jogging to catch up with her, "You're not from around here, right? What place is next for you to visit?"

"Not telling you!" she pouted. Then she stopped. With a heavy sigh, she turned and faced Ryou, giving him proper respect, "Look., I'm sorry for being such a sore loser, but I've never experienced anything like that before! How can you do that?"

"Ahhh don't make me feel any worse than I already do, Misty! We can always duel another time! I'll be around. With hair like mine, I'm not too difficult to find...!"

"... haha... heeheehee...!" Misty giggled lightly. Try as she might to stay upset with him, he was too cute to her to stay angry for long. Seeing her laugh was a delicate sight for Ryou. It was something he would secretly cherish for a while.

"W-well, I won't hold you up. It was awfully nice meeting you. Cheers for the duel! Bye now," he waved.

"Um bye..." she returned the gesture, but he had already turned and dashed off with haste. Her eyes remained on his shrinking form until it disappeared from her line of vision. Ryou was quite a strange boy. Attractive, but strange. While she did enjoy the time spent with him somewhat, at this point I time she just wanted to gather Pikachu and Blizzed and get in touch with Ash. Yes, Ash. Although he annoyed her a lot, he was the only other person she shared a world with...

She really must have been at a deeper loss that she thought from that duel if she was actually hoping to get a call from Ash. And speak of the devil... Misty jumped as her cell went off. Checking it, she was half surprised, and half jubilant to see that Ash actually had contacted her. But instead of a phone call, he sent her a very long text message about his duel that he won against Syrus. Afterwards, he mentioned that Chazz was on his way to collect her and bring her to the dorms. Finished reading, Misty sighed; reflecting on the day's events. She needed to get better at this game. For both worlds and most importantly, for herself.

For those who don't know, the code Mokuba punched in for the elevator is the Konami Code( up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, start)...used in some Konami games to get secret power ups, characters, extra lives, hidden menus, random stuff like that. It's touched on that he liked to play Contra 4 on the DS while Seto would rather play Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance on a GBA as the hidden character Simon Belmont in Boss Rush mode. 8 bit midget for the win, I guess lol I thought that would be funny...since the DM card game is made by Konami and all...yeah... LAUGH I SAY!

-Mel


	3. Jaden vs Ryuga

_**A/N: Story idea, concept and story credit go to JohnnyD2. All characters Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, and any other company licensed and owned characters and concepts are property of their respective owners and we do not own them!**_

_**A/N: Cards from both the manga and the show are used.**_

OoO

Duel Dimensions Chapter 8

OoO

"Awwwwwwhhhhnnnn!" Ash lazily and loudly yawned. It was his first day of class in the Duel Academy and merely 2 minutes had passed before he slouched in his chair, appearing bored beyond fathom. One elbow rested above the concave desktops and his hand cupped the side of his face. Earlier this morning, Ash was rather excited to start learning more about this new game of Duel Monsters to him. Syrus, his newly appointed roommate, supplied him with an extra suit of the Slifer Red uniform. It was was two sizes too small for Ash, so he ended up appearing a lot younger than he already was. But he could at least move around in it a little, and he could breathe, so he decided to deal with it until the order for his proper size was filled.

He gave Misty a quick call before getting dressed for the day. She had been spending the night in a hotel in Domino City- Mokuba's treat. After the call, Ash then proceeded to send her text messages until his teacher arrived for class. Now, it hadn't been more than five minutes and the new student was falling asleep and doing a poor job of fending it off.

"Awwwwwwwwnnnnnnnnn" he yawned again, slouching even more. He already knew about what was being taught from Misty and Flamvell Baby the other day. He knew about setting trap and spell cards and setting monsters in defense mode negates any LP damage unless a card description states otherwise. He didn't have to listen to this—despite the fact that he was playing like a complete newbie just yesterday, not knowing what a flip effect was and all.

"Psst...Ash...you're falling asleep...!" a worrisome Syrus cautioned, nudging the somnolent youth with his elbow, "Wake up, class just started!"

"Muhhh... But I can't help it!" Ash returned in a rather loud whisper. It was so audible, that it snagged the attentions of both Chazz and Alexis, who were sitting 4 seats away in separate rows. The arrogant teen slid his obsidian eyes over in Ash's direction and made a face that suggested he was far superior to yet another student and duelist. Then he returned his full attention back to the lesson at hand, even though he was all too familiar with the content of the lecture as well. He wondered when he'd get some kind of challenge out of this school and upon thinking of it, he glanced down in the row in front of him where Alexis sat. The sandy blonde gave no more than a slight head turn in Ash's direction so only a flicker of her profile was granted to him. And that was more than what Chazz got to see. His eyes contracted as envy settled in. How dare this sporadic new student be given more of Alexis' beauty than he, the Chazz, received? And to make things worse, Ash wasn't even paying any attention to her!

A snap clicked in his ears. Looking down, he realized that he had broken his writing utensil in half. "...Why won't she look at me like that?" Chazz whined under his breath, "She's never looked at me that much...!" he complained, distraught, "Maybe if I beat him in a duel, she'd watch me then...!" he declared, and while his plight was soundly made to himself, his determination was unnoticed by the oblivious Ash and even more ignored by Alexis.

"Ash...!" Syrus nudged him again, but the boy just could not keep his eyes open. Sleep overtook him and his head drooped to the desk face first. "Oh no you don't!" Syrus exclaimed, starting to shake Ash by his shoulder, "Wake up wake up wake up!"

"Zzzzzzzz"

"Ash-!" the turquoise-haired teen pouted. He was used to Jaden doing something like this, but now his new roommate was doing it too? Whenever Jaden fell asleep in class, there were only two things that would wake him up; one was the mention of food, namely a burger, in his ear and the other was to tickle him. Syrus and Ash had just met the other day, and it seemed rather rude to lay your hands on someone who was basically a stranger, no matter how nice or cool they seemed. But it would seem that he would have to break a few boundaries today.

Cutely, he shut his eyes and poked a finger to Ash's rib. The sleeping boy didn't budge. Dumbfounded, Syrus stared at Ash, then glanced to the front of the class. The teacher still droned on giving his lecture without any care to the effect his voice had on his students. If he wasn't paying attention then...

"Ash, wake up!" Syrus tried again, this time shoving all his fingers to Ash's rib and rapidly moving them. Ash's body jolted for a moment, and he made a sound. But instead of opening his eyes, he just turned his head, muttering nonsense, "But I don't wanna get ice cream from there, Misty..."

Syrus blanched from the mention of a girl's name in Ash's sleep. Did Ash have a girlfriend back home of something? Or maybe she was his sister? Either or, the idea of Ash talking about a girl had him feeling much meeker than usual. But he didn't have a chance to continue pondering on that thought when the flash of a large book flew past his line of vision and hit Ash squarely upside his head.

Needless to say, THAT woke him up.

With a shout, Ash lifted his head and frantically looked around, "HEY!"

"That's what you get for falling asleep, loser!" Chazz retorted with a sharp tongue. In actuality, he was just jealous that Ash mentioned Misty after being shown attention by his crush. It wasn't fair! And of course, in addition to his displeasure, his beautiful dueling queen tossed another look Ash's way. "Shh!" Mindy, the girl next to her scolded, raising a finger to her lips, "You're, like, disturbing the class!" she yielded. Her friend on the other side of Alexis nodded and also shushed Ash. But Alexis spoke not a word. Her granite eyes fluttered briskly over Ash, studiously. Then she glanced behind her to Chazz, causing him to instantly freeze in whatever he was doing. Then she rolled her eyes and shook her head before giving the teacher her full attention again.

"..." Syrus blinked. He observed Alexis' behavior and Chazz's devastation. Poor guy. The number one female duelist hardly ever gave Chazz the time of day when he did almost all he could to impress her. And from seeing how difficult it was for someone as suave as Chazz, that made Syrus think he even had much less of a chance. But who cared about girls right now anyway? He had notes to take. And now that Ash was awake, he could share his with him. With a bright smile, he turned to his roommate, "Wanna share..." he trailed off immediately from the sight of Ash laying face down atop the desks again—softly snoring away.

Syrus frowned cutely, then slapped a hand to his forehead, "I give uuuup!" he whined. While Ash got in his beauty sleep, Flamvell Baby floated above his head without much passion. He would have fallen asleep from the lecture as well. And since Ash was napping and Syrus couldn't see him, he had no reason to say anything. It crossed his mind to go up to the teacher and bother him—possibly making the class think a ghost was haunting them or something. But the idea merely crossed his mind and he continued doing absolutely nothing and nearly being bored to fiery tears.

"Okay class, now we're going to cover the concept of Synchro Summons. Now that you've understood the basics of Duel Monsters, I can move on to a more intermediate lesson, " the instructor announced in a dry monotone. At these words, Flamvell Baby perked up and clamped onto Ash's shoulder, "Hey! Hey wake up!" When Ash gave no answer, the infant clobbered him upside his head with a tiny fist. Ash immediately leapt up with a start, "UWAAAH!" he shouted, then lost his balance and fell over onto the floor.

Of course, all eyes were on him, even Alexis'. "Uh—um!" Ash stammered, blinking nervously. With a bashful laugh, he rubbed the back of his head and waved to the teacher, "Um... sorry about that! I uh... kinda just fell out of my-"

"..." The teacher blankly stared at him. The expression unnerved Ash and he made an uneasy sound before simply slipping back into his seat and chuckling a bit as if nothing had happened and he hadn't disrupted the entire class. After observing Ash sit back down, and allowing murmurs and snickers to cross throughout the room, the teacher continued on with the lesson.

"All right class, now I'm sure you know that all Monster cards have star levels, correct? These stars are one of the main key elements of initiating a Synchro Summon," he instructed, and pointed to an impressively sized computer screen behind him. At the press of a button, a level 3 Junk Synchron appeared. The class gave various sounds of awed commentary from the view of such a new and odd looking monster.

"Oh who cares," Chazz quipped to himself, waving the new Tuner type monster away, "It's just another effect monster"

As if the teacher could hear him from his distance in the room, he looked in Chazz's direction, "And for those of you who may think at a first glance that this...Tuner monster is a regular Effect Monster, you are both wrong and correct. While it does have an effect, for the purposes of Synchro Summoning, it is only considered to be a Tuner. What these Tuners do is allow you to Synchro Summon. You can't do it without one." He pressed another button and a Quillbolt Hedgehog popped up alongside the Junk Synchron. "Notice the total level of stars these two have. The Junk Synchron was 3 stars while the Quillbolt Hedgehog has 2. Now, how many stars does that total?"

"Fiiiiiiiiiiive" the class drawled at the same time Chazz jeered, "Seventeen. Seriously, what do you think?", and Ash answered with a hesitant: "Uhhm 5?"

"Correct," the teacher replied with a nod. The reason I ask you is in order to perform this summoning, you NEED the EXACT amount of stars for it, no more and certainly no less. These two cards here are only one example. There are many different Synchro Monsters that require more than 5 stars to summon. And I've even heard of a level 4 Synchro Monster.

"One thing to keep in mind is you man use as many number of Monster cards that you like as long as it equals the exact star amount and at least one of them is a Tuner type. Some of them will ask for a specific card that is needed for the summon while others may require any monster type and any Tuner type. As long as you are able to read, you should be fine, " he continued, looking Ash's way. The dark-haired boy felt a rush of apprehension tingle up his spine from being picked on. To this, Flamvell Baby laughed. There was no way the teacher could have known about Ash's and Syrus' duel the other day where Ash was a victim of not reading himself, but the thought alone was still amusing. And sad.

With the click of another button, the Junk Synchron and Quillbolt Hedgehog moved closer to the other with the addition of a plus sign placed in between them. An equal sign materialized, then then image of a level 5 Junk Warrior came into view. Many of the students leaned forward in their seats in amazement of this new monster and commented on its white boarder.

"Whoa, it's white?" Chazz questioned aloud.

"Woooow, hey that's really cool!" Ash exclaimed, and glanced to Syrus, "Isn't it?"

"Yeah!" Syrus chirped and adjusted his spectacles, "I'd love to be able to play a card like that!"

"Yeah, me too! It's so awesome! I wanna Synchro Summon right now!" Ash added enthusiastically.

"You should learn how to play the game right first!" Flamvell Baby snapped.

"What? Hey! I won last time, didn't I?"

"Ash..." Syrus pouted, giving sulking an all new aspect of cuteness. Here he was, someone who had been dueling for years ending up getting owned by someone who had never heard of Duel Monsters until a few days ago. It was embarrassing to say the least. And from the way Ash was arguing back and forth into thin air, Syrus figured he was talking to his duel spirit again. Jealousy wavered over his eyes briefly before he shut them and forced a bashful smile, "Come on Ash, you're still new to the game. We all are to some extent! Becoming more comfortable with the basics can really help you in the long run!"

"Listen to the pipsqueak, kid!" the spirit jested.

"Huh?" Ash wondered, risking a glance over to his roommate. Syrus returned his look with a worrisome gaze, then shrugged. Without another word, Ash whipped out a piece of notebook paper and began scribbling a series of questions down for Flamvell Baby to read. After scanning over some of them, Flamvell crossed his arms and snorted, "Why don't you ask your teacher that?"

"Jaden!" Syrus suddenly shouted, rising from his seat. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked the newcomer's way. He seemed a little winded, his clothes a little ruffled, but his features were bright and vibrant as ever. In truth, after Jaden's run-in with Palkia, his outfit was ruined. He was able to change his clothes before arriving. He didn't want his friends to worry for no reason when he was still alive. Even the teacher seemed a tad intrigued by his arrival. Just as he was about to scold him for being late to yet another session, the bell rang, telling of the 10 minute break in-between class periods.

"Well, luckily for you, you can attend the second half of the class, " he stated.

"Hey, good lookin' out, teach! I owe ya one!" the brown-haired youth exclaimed, giving the instructor a wink and a thumbs up.

"Jaden!" Syrus called, waving frantically to his friend with both arms as if he were trying to flag him down.

"Who's Jaden? Is he your buddy or something?" Ash questioned curiously, turning to Syrus.

"My best buddy. He's a slacker in school, but he's the only best friend I've got! Come on, you should meet him!" he announced, already running towards his friend.

"H-hey wait up!" Ash called, following after Syrus. As they ran off, Chazz watched them with crossed arms, "Losers..." he huffed, yet despite himself, he made his way down to where the trio gathered.

"JADEN!" Syrus whined, throwing his arms around his friend, "Where have you been? Are you all right?"

"Whoa! Hey, I'm fine, bro! I missed you too, man...!" Jaden joked, gently moving his concerned friend away from him, "Listen, I didn't wanna worry you, but I ran into this really cool guy would you'd never believe!" he continued, then glanced to Ash. Then his eyes flickered up to the unamused Flamvell Baby above his shoulder, "Oh? And speaking of cool guys, what's your name?"

"Me?" Ash wondered, pointing to his nose, "I'm Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town! I'm a Pokemon trainer!"

Both Jaden and Syrus blinked, one after the other at the strange words he spoke and the unorthodox title he referred to himself as. "A Pokemon..." Jaden trailed off.

"Trainer?" Syrus picked up, tilting his head to the side in inquiry, "I remember you saying you were out of town, but-"

"OH I JUST REMEMBERED!" Jaden suddenly exclaimed, dramatically grasping his head with both hands, "That guy I met...he said his name was Palkia!"

Both Ash and the Flamvell Baby jumped, "PALKIA?" the echoed in unison.

"Yeah! He got me out of a jam!" Jaden enthused, giving all 3 of them eye contact, "He even gave me my duel disk back! I'm glad all my cards are safe. I thought I'd totally lost Neos back there!"

"Wh-what happened? Was it the only Pokemon? Did it say anything to you? Did you fight it? Did you capture it?" Ash questioned; each one leading him closer to Jaden until he was clutching the lapels of his outfit for dear life.

"Whoa whoa! We just met, bro! First Syrus, and now you too? I guess I'm cool and all, but touching like this is for the ladies only!"

"Sorry!" Ash apologized and quickly released his grip, much to Jaden's relief, "It's just, Palkia is a Pokemon from my world! I've never even gotten to see it but you have! You gotta tell me everything you know! That Pokemon is said to be able to manipulate time and space along with Dialga!"

" Palkia?" Syrus wondered, "And Die...Dee... Daa..."

"Dialga," both Ash and Jaden corrected in unison. From hearing them speak so confidently about the same thing although they were complete and utter strangers, Syrus shrank away from them a bit meekly, "Oh... uh... my bad..."

"It's ok, bro!" Jaden smiled radiantly to his friend, "So, how did you get yourself a Duel Spirit?"

"Huh? Uhhhhhhhhh" Ash trailed off, glancing to the baby with a wary expression as if the wrong words tumbled out of his mouth, he'd get smacked in the head by whim. Mocking innocence, the baby gave Ash a pure look—but Ash couldn't tell which extreme that "purity" was aligned with. "Is something wrong?" Flamvell Baby asked, feigning a delicate tone. Needless to say, this utterly creeped Ash out. With a laugh, the fiery eidolon took it upon himself to answer in place of Ash, "He got on my nerves so much, I figured I'd stick around to bother him for my own amusement. Nah, actually it was for a better reason than that, believe it or not. He has something he has no idea about..."

"? What's that Flamvell Baby?"

"I just said you didn't know, didn't I! You don't know what you don't know!"

"I- huh?"

For nearly three minutes, Ash and Jaden talked very brightly about the time-shifting Pokemon and Jaden's encounter with him. Syrus and Chazz listened in, but could only input inquiries and absurdities respectively. The only one who gave Jaden's story a hint of interest besides Ash was Alexis. Her two flighty friends walked by without a care in the world, but stopped at the doorway because their idol had. The inspiring duelist eyed the 3 with caution. The things they were saying sounded absurd. Boys. They hear something that sounds remotely cool to them and their minds get them carried away. Silently, her attention shifted to Ash, skimmed over Chazz and settled on Jaden. He always came to class late, when he did show up for class, but he wasn't that bad of a duelist. He must not have been to gain her attention.

"Alexis?" one of her admirers asked in a stuck up drawl, "Don't tell us you're believing those boyish stories are you?"

"Yeah, c'mon, lets go exchange make-up tips with our dueling divas," The other stated, flicking her hair over her shoulder.

"Yeah sure..." Alexis flatly agreed. Happily, her two friends looped their arms with hers and walked with her out the door. She tossed one last look over in the boys' direction before leaving. Her eyes met with Jaden's jubilant features for a moment before the frame of the doorway separated him from her line of vision.

"Hey, did you two hear about that teacher that's been cheating other students out of duels?" Jasmine questioned, lifting a finger to her angular locks and twirling a portion of them around it. Both Mindy and Alexis rolled their eyes and crossed their arms while making their way down the hallway. "Yeah I've heard," Mindy stated with a frown. She moved her eyes over to Alexis, "You?"

"Yeah, me too. It disgusts me that someone, a teacher of all people, would stood that low. Are they that afraid of losing? They deserve to be kicked out of this school!" Alexis continued, "Someone like that gives this school and the students a bad reputation. Someone should stop him."

"Like who, you? Or maybe that Slifer you like?" Jasmine groused, sucking her teeth and scrunching her face in a haughty way. It was as if the very form of the idea of Jaden in her mind and on her lips was some sort of contamination she wanted to be rid of as quickly as possible. She couldn't understand what such a great duelist like Alexis would see in a thing like that Slifer.

"Hey, that's not funny!" Alexis retorted in a firm tone. With a sigh, she turned away from the two girls and shook her head. Fortunately for her, with her back turned, they couldn't see the faint blush feathered over her cheeks, "And anyway, if I dueled him, it wouldn't be sense enough for him to quit. We need someone to get under his skin...someone to annoy him out of robbing our other classmates...we need someone like..." she trailed off; her mind teeming with thoughts of a certain Slifer Red duelist that was never much of the studious type but always had a smile on his face.

"Chazz?" Jasmine chimed in curiously.

"That cutie with the glasses that always sits behind us in class?" Mindy wondered, looking at her nails, "Too bad he's so short..."

"What? You mean that wasn't a GIRL?" Jasmine cried out in disbelief.

The two with common sense exchanged looks, then ran a hand through their hair. "No, he's not a girl! Anyway, Jasmine... if we're all going to talk, let's hurry before the next part of class starts, okay?" Alexis sighed.

"You got it! Besides, I need to go and thoroughly moisturize my wrists. My duel disk is too tight...It's been chaffing my skin again...!" Jasmine whined as she followed the two of them down the brightly lit corridor. As they did, one of the faculty members stealthily crept by them...

OoO

Once the break ended and class resumed. About 4 minutes in to the second session, with Ash, Jaden and Syrus on the verge of falling asleep, one of the teachers entered the class and whispered something to the instructor. "What? More students were cheated out of their duels? Who is this teacher that is supposedly doing this?" he blurted out.

From hearing that Jaden ad Ash perked up, leaving Syrus to nearly fall out of his seat. "What? There's a cheating teacher on the loose? " Jaden perked up.

"Hey, let's go track him down!" Ash chimed in, "Someone's gotta do it! Let's go, Jaden! Syrus!"

"Yeah! I like the way you think, bro!" Jaden agreed. In contrast to their enthusiasm, Syrus shied away and held up his hands in caution, "I think I'ma sit this one out! I don't wanna lose! I already have a lot I need to study..." he confessed; his eyes trailing over to Ash. He may have lost yesterday, but he was going to do much better next time. He didn't know where his brother was, but he wanted to prove he could be a great duelist.

"Excuse me, teacher!" Ash shouted, standing to his feet. He gave a respectful bow, "May I please be excused from class?"

"Eh? What is your problem?" the teacher asked in a bored voice.

"Uhhh... I think I'm gonna be siiick! It's an emergency!" Ash griped, clutching his gut. With a sigh, the teacher shrugged, "You may go. And take Yuki with you. He seems eager to lend a hand... perhaps in holding your hair back."

Both Ash and Jaden glanced at the other as the comment simmered in their heads. Then they both made grotesque expressions. Ignoring the display the teacher continued, "So Jaden, you may also be excused." He already knew what they were both upto. He had heard of Jaden's reputation in dueling. Someone that reckless would at the least take the vigilante teacher by surprise.

OoO

Ash and Jaden slid into the hallway—shortly after, they discovered the crooked teacher in the conclusion of falling another student. The two of them cut in and Ash ushered the student to the side. Within moments, Jaden confronted the teacher, Professor Ryuga, ready to throw down.

"Allright buddy, it's time someone put you in your place! Get your game on!"

Turning to observe the duel, Ash couldn't help but cringe, "Wow...he actually said THAT?"

"Let's DUEL!" the two combatants initiated.

"I'll go first, if ya don't mind!" Jaden stated, gathering his first hand and drawing for the turn. Elemental Hero Wildheart, Elemental Hero Sparkman, Elemental Hero Ocean, Alternate Fusion, Swamp of the Fallen and a Fusion spell were the options he had to choose from for his first turn. "Allright, I'm gonna throw down my Elemental Hero Sparkman(ATK1600/ DEF 1400) in attack mode! Then, I'ma call it a turn! Your move!"

Professor Ryuga snorted at Jaden's perky dialogue and drew his first card. He glanced at his opening hand of an Ultra Evolution Pill, Don Turtle, Hyper Hammerhead, Mega Thunderball, 2 Hydrogeddon—one of them he drew into. He ended up setting his spell card and playing his Mega Thunderball(ATK 750/DEF 600)in face up attack mode, but did not initiate battle with it.

"Huh?" Ash pondered from the sidelines, "Why did he do that? His monster is weaker than Jaden's Sparkman."

"Just watch," Flamvell Baby stated, keeping its beady eyes on Jaden. The brown-haired youth made a confused expression, then shrugged his shoulders, "That was a weird play. Either you're overconfident or you're trying to bait me into attacking you," he continued, adding his draw to his hand: Shield Strike, "And under normal circumstances, I'd take that bait head on to clear it out the way. But this time, I'ma play it a little safe and summon Elemental Hero Wildheart( ATK 1500/ DEF 1600) to the field!" Jaden called. A tanned well-built hero with a blade strapped to his back materialized into the field and stood proudly next to Sparkman, "He's not effected by traps so if that's what you have face down, he'll be ready for it! Now, it's your move, teach!"

For Ryuga's turn, he drew into his 3rd Hydrogeddon(ATK 1600/ DEF 1000) and growled in disgust. Well now there was no reason to play any of them, he had them all in his hand! But since he needed defense fodder, he put one in face down defense position anyway. But he left his Mega Thunderball in attack position. At this presumed misplay, Jaden and Ash quirked their brows. Either this teacher was doing his best to throw Jaden off guard or he really did have to cheat players in order to win. So far, his dueling was terrible and the term "skills" would only be laughable. And Ash of all individuals would understand.

"Uh.. ok... Anyway..." Jaden murmured, taking his turn. He drew into a Hero Barrier and set it. He then enabled his two monsters to attack. Sparkman dove for Hydrogeddon while Wildheart threw an axe at the Mega Thunderball causing Ryuga battle damage from it. (LP 4000- 750= 3250)

"Not bad, Jaden Yuki!" the professor retorted in a sarcastic tone so bad, both Jaden and Ash had to cringe from how awful it sounded. "What are you, some kinda reject super villain? Even I have better one liners than that. Now, take your turn so I can throw down a face down!"

"Ouch" Flamvell Baby retorted, scrunching his face while Ash scratched the back of his head, "Wow... that was terrible...!" he laughed low enough that only he and the spirit would hear. Even if Jaden did catch wind of what he said, the jubilant boy gave no indication of being bothered of such accusations. He simply stared warily at his opponent as he drew for his turn. Ryuga glanced at the Cyber Dinosaur and grinned. If the way he played was any indication to how a bad player he was, if Duel Monsters were Poker, he would have given his hand away. Luckily for Jaden, he had seen this type of behavior enough times in his life. He gave a nod towards the teacher's hand, "Looks like you've got yourself a winning card there, huh teach?"

"You could say that, " he chuckled nervously. For his play, he summoned Don Turtle(ATK 1100/ DEF 1200) to the field. Since there were no other copies of it in his hand, he couldn't utilize its effect and activated his Big Evolution Pill spell instead. By doing so, he tributed Don Turtle as cost for playing the spell and special summoned Cyber Dinosaur(ATK 2500/DEF 1900) from his hand. Now for 3 turns, as long as that spell stayed face up on the field, he could Normal Summon or Set dinosaur monsters without tributing. But that wasn't all he did for his turn, He ordered his Cyber Dinosaur to attack Jaden's Wildheart, thus taking a nice chunk out of his life points( LP 4000-1000=3000).

Next, Jaden drew into an Elemental Hero Woodsman. With both Woodsman, Polymerization and Ocean, he could fuse them for a greater monster. With that being one of the game-breaking plays he was waiting for, he went to place the spell down to activated, when his duel disk suddenly spat sparks at him. He recoiled and went to try it again, but it was no good. The system was rigged!

"Eeeheeheeheehee... having problems with your hardware, young man?" Ryuga sneered, wiggling his finger with the ring that controlled the the repel of playing spell cards on every other duel disk but his own.

"Why you dirty cheat! No wonder you have to stoop so low! And dude, gold is definitely not your color. Makes you look paler than you are. Fine, if that's how you wanna do things, I'll switch my Sparkman to defense position and set a monster down in face down defense mode!" he announced, setting his Ocean face down, "It's on you, teach."

"Of course it is," Ryuga grinned, drawing his card for the turn: Smashing Ground. " Next I'll summon Hyper Hammerhead ( ATK 1500/ DEF 1200) and use it to attack your face down!"

"Ah no you don't! I activate my face down trap, Hero Barrier! Your attack just got nullified and my hero got barrier-ed!"

"Thank you for that! Next, I'll play this shiny new Smashing Ground I obtained, destroying your Elemental Hero Sparkman. The one with the greater defense has its benefits towards your opponent, wouldn't you say?" Ryuga claimed, then pointed to his Hyper Hammerhead, "Because Hyper Hammerhead engaged in battle with a monster and didn't destroy it, it bounces it back to your hand, which means, I can attack you directly! Cyber Dinosaur, attack!"

"AGH!" Jaden shouted as he was propelled back first from the dino's severe attack (LP 3000-2500=500). "Ugh... Not bad... for a cheater. But that's fine with me. If you cheat you're not 133t, I'd say!"

"What?" Ryuga questioned utterly flabbergasted by what this hip teenager just sputtered while Ash and Flamvell Baby were shaking their heads and cringing from that terrible line. To this, Jaden laughed lightly while he staggered to his feet, "I know I know... I could've done better, but right now things aren't looking very good for our heroes..."

"Please, no more puns!" Ash finally confessed honestly to Jaden, "Just beat this guy!"

Ryuga clicked his tongue, "I end my turn! So much for your grand play. You look defeated already!"

"I never said I was down and out... just a little winded...! I'm fine!" he breathed, glancing at his draw for this turn, "Or should I say I'm 'pine'? I summon Elemental Hero Woodsman to the field in attack mode!"

"Ugh..." Ash, Flamvell Baby and even Ryuga groused, slapping a hand to their foreheads and making rather pained faces. "I'm just glad Syrus doesn't talk like this...!" Ash mumbled under his breath. As he did, he got the mental image of a petite innocent looking Syrus crossing his arms, making random gangster hand signs and gestures while spouting horrible cheesy puns and one-liners. To say the least, and a little to Jaden's credit, the thought was dreadfully horrid. Quickly, his mind shifted back to the duel at hand.

"I'm also gonna set 2 face downs and then end my turn!" He announced, setting Alternate Fusion and Swamp of the Fallen. Glad to be the one to hopefully win this duel, Ryuga drew for his turn. A Frostosaurus would look nice on his side of the field. And thanks to Big Evolution Pill, he could summon it directly without a tribute. Silently, his eyes trailed over to Jaden's side. He had two traps set face down. If they were spell cards, he wouldn't be able to activate them. He decided it better to play it safe and didn't attack for now. He wanted Jaden to dangle in defeat for a little while longer.

Jaden took full advantage of this and played his Elemental Hero Ocean yet again. But he also didn't attack. After setting his Shield Strike, he passed his turn. Ryuga was beside himself with what he thought was another student admitting failure and giving up. With an arrogant laugh, he ordered an attack with Cyber Dinosaur.

"I knew you'd do that!" Jaden exclaimed, "Trap cards activate! Swamp of the Fallen will halve your dino's attack in half!( ATK 2500/2= ATK 1250) While its attack was weakened, the creature still made a beeline for Woodsman who appeared rather doom-embracing at the moment. But Jaden wasn't through yet. "And then, I'll activate Alternate Fusion! And with both Ocean and Woodsman on the field, I can fuse them together to make Elemental Hero Terra Firma!" he shouted, throwing a hand into the air. The two monsters swirled together in a radiant light, merging to form one creature. Once summoned, Terra Firma gave a possessive roar and crossed his arms. Because Cyber Dino was already in process of attacking, it couldn't stop! And it ran right into the powerful 2500 ATK of Jaden's fusion, costing Ryuga 1250 LP and knocking his life point total down to 2000. As a final nail in the coffin Jaden activated Shield Strike. With it, after destroying an opponent's monster, he could deal direct damage equal to his own monster's defense points! And with Terra Firma, a DEF of 2000 was nothing to laugh at...for Ryuga that is. Because now, he had lost!

OoO

After the culprit had been relinquished to the authorities of the school, news of Jaden's courage spread throughout the classrooms in record time. Of course, his modest words were "It was nothing" and instead of having so much of the focus on himself, he relieved it to Ash. By this time, Chazz and Syrus had heard everything and were getting the whole story from Ash and Jaden directly. A certain gray-eyed blonde listened in as well, but from a distance. It wasn't long before her two best friends/admirers ushered her out the door with frivolous chatter of fashion and make up on their fickle lips.

After she left, Jaden paused in his recap and stared aimlessly off into space.

"What is it Jay?" Syrus questioned honestly, already starting to show concern for his best friend.

"Hmm?" Jaden wondered, placing his warm eyes on the smaller male. Then he smiled, "Anyone remember what time it is? I'm starving!"

"Getting a bite to eat sounds great," Ash chimed in, "And if you don't mind, can you tell me all about Terra Firma?"

OoO


	4. Misty vs Dragunity

_**A/N: Story idea, concept and story credit go to JohnnyD2. All characters Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, and any other company licensed and owned characters and concepts are property of their respective owners and we do not own them!**_

_**A/N: Cards from both the manga and the show are used as well as original ones.**_

OoO

Duel Dimensions

Chapter 9

OoO

Pleasantly, the fiery-haired Pokemon Trainer strode her way through the bustling streets of Domino City. A tune feathered from in-betwixt her lips while she took in the sights of the intricate building décor she passed by. An exuberant Pikachu was nestled in her arms against her chest. The garish creature flickered its ears and trilled energetic acoustics when they both observed establishments that pleased their eyes. For roughly 15 minutes Misty, her best friend's companion, and a rather silent Blizzed had been strolling about the town.

Last night, Mokuba felt a little sorry for her the way she reacted to his big brother, so he secretly arranged for her to stay at a nice hotel for at least a week. And should she need more time to spend there, he would help her out, but he did let her know that he couldn't let her stay there forever. She spoke with Ash in the morning as well. He seemed as enthusiastic as ever and mentioned that he was taking classes now and today was his first day. She had giggled at the news while on the phone with him as she remembered the first time she started taking gym leader lessons. They talked briefly and she assured him that she had Pikachu. Of course, Ash wanted his best buddy back, but he knew Misty would take good care of it.

Soon, she reached a vastly wide area that was perfect for crowds to gather. Aside from its size, actual masses of people had accumulated there. Their chatter carried for miles while they occasionally cheered for a fan favorite of whom she could not yet see. "What are they looking at?" she questioned to Blizzed. The noble griffin raised his head to gain a better view at what she couldn't. "There is a duel in progress," he replied calmly.

"A duel? Where? Here?"

"On the screens embedded in the building."

"Huh?"

"Pika pika?"

There was a grand cheer from the crowd at that moment and Misty figured that the duel was now won. Moments later, she heard a strong, resonating voice she didn't recognize announce, "I win, Kaiba."

"Kaiba?" she echoed, her body instantly becoming tensed from hearing that accursed word. Even Pikachu was at her mercy as she involuntarily squeezed it tighter to her chest in her dislike for that name. And in addition to that, the sound of his voice turned her features to an unladylike scowl.

"What? Winning in only one turn? You barely even attacked me!"

OoO

Within the interiors of a room in Kaiba Corp that was specifically designed for their daily duels, Yami had just lain defeat to an astonished Kaiba with a Spell Counter OTK. While it wasn't his intention, he still pulled it off anyway. While Seto was irritated with the round being over so quickly, he was also enthralled by the spectacular plays that only his rival could conjure. Next to him, his duel spirit revealed herself and patted Seto on the shoulder. He didn't bother to look at her, but she assumed his appreciation was valid. Even still, that last round was other too quickly for his liking despite his excitement. He would have preferred to actually play the game against his rival rather than just watch himself be bested and beaten. The glare in Seto's eyes told Yami everything he needed to know.

"Then let's have another, shall we?" Yami quipped, while tapping a card to his lips to mask a gallant smirk, "You wouldn't want to rob your fans out of a proper _performance_ would you?" he added, keeping his gaze on his opponent while he reached for the deck box on his belt. He swapped out a few cards for the ones in his side deck as Seto did the same.

"Hmph. Save it for after I've finally defeated you. Then I'll prove how well I _can perform_ to the likes of you! Who cares what my fans think. I'll keep getting more regardless of what I do. But I can beat all of them easily..." Seto replied with a priggish curve to his lips and shuffling his deck. After they both calibrated the others' decks, they began the 2nd round of their next duel. "Duel, begin!" Kisara called in a gentle playful tone, raising an arm and then lowering it.

Five turns into the game, Yami's field consisted of Magician's Valkyria( ATK 1600/ DEF 1800) in face up defense mode, Endymion the Master Magician( ATK 2700/ DEF 1700), Magical Exemplar(ATK 1700/ DEF 1400) with 12 spell counters on it and Tempest Magician(ATK 2200/ DEF 1400). Magical Citadel of Endymion was present as the field spell and he also had three cards set and 2 cards in his hand. With the last 3 monsters being the ones that were present on the field for Kaiba's earlier defeat, in addition to the play of many different spell cards, the respective monsters greeted Kaiba in their own ways. Magical Exemplar bowed gracefully to him, Endymion struck a poised demeanor while Tempest Magician smiled impishly at him and swiped her scythe in his direction to taunt him.

The view of them along with harboring the knowledge of the one who pulled of such a feat made Seto consume the very entity of it all in its astonishing flavor. But whatever Yami threw his way, he could match it- or so he'd prefer to think. On his side of the field, he had all three of his prized Blue Eyes White Dragons(ATK 3000/ DEF 2500), one tributed by means of Kaiser Seahorse while the other two by Lord of D with a Flute of Summoning Dragon. Using the spell aided in Yami gaining needed spell counters, but he still managed to keep his monsters on the field much to his, and Kisara's appeasement. There was also a Luster Dragon #2(ATK 2400/ DEF 1400) and a Luster Dragon#1(ATK 1900/ DEF 1600). It was now still his turn. He was so taken aback by Yami's superb plays he nearly forgot to glance at his own card for the draw. Upon doing so, a wide triumphant grin spread over his face that abolished his former somberness. Yami would undoubtedly be his after this play. Then he would be the new and appropriate King of Games.

OoO

Back in the town, and being the only contrast amongst a plethora of screaming and cheering fans for their favorite Seto Kaiba, Misty watched Kaiba's next move with a bored frown. Pikachu seemed fascinated by the monsters displayed on screen while Blizzed seemed to be following the game more closely than he originally let on. Misty was utterly left out, but she didn't really care that much. Besides, her two companions seemed interested so leaving now would be rude. However she knew if Ash were the one interested in the duel, she WOULD leave and be rude on purpose.

To the duel's credit, she got to observe Yami Synchro Summon his Tempest Magician. Her mind reeled back to the duel she had with that cute boy Ryou whose deck and play style completely annihilated her. Her frowned deepened even more from the memory. She thought she was much better at the game...

"Look at that!" Blizzed suddenly spoke up. With wide eyes, Misty glanced over to him, "What is it?"

"The screen! That Kaiba fellow just merged all 5 of his dragons together to create a true monstrosity!"

"Huh?" she wondered, raising a brow. She couldn't tell if the griffin were amazed or terrified by the play. Yet, she reluctantly trailed her eyes upto one of the many monitors. From the use of Polymerization, Kaiba had reigned the mighty Five Headed Dragon (ATK 5000/ DEF 5000) under his command. The overwhelming ATK points of a whopping 5000 surprised Yami, but he had already expected Seto to play that from the start.

"Bottomless Trap Hole, Kaiba..." he trailed off. That play was a little too obvious for him.

"Solemn Judgment. And I activate Call of the Haunted on one of my Blue Eyes."

"Counter Counter your Solemn Judgment."

"Ceasefire!"

"Barrel Behind the Door" Yami quirked a brow as he activated this. Due to Ceasfire's effect dealing damage for every face up effect monster on the field, Barrel Behind the door would redirect that damage towards Kaiba instead.(LP 4000-2000=2000)

"What?"

"That's right. Run out of retaliations Kaiba?" Yami smirked as the chain resolved in his favor, rendering Kaiba with minus one Five Headed Dragon and 2000 of his life points. The game would have ended there if Kaiba's Solemn Judgment had gone through. Lucky for him, Yami stopped it with his Counter Counter trap card. But Kaiba wasn't pleased one bit by being "saved" by his greatest rival like that. He felt offended. He didn't need Yami as his savior; his rival either deserved to be on his knees below him or on the ground in defeat from being thoroughly dominated by him. And only him. He didn't need any pity! But now that Yami didn't have any more set cards in his spell/trap zones, Seto could kill off one of his monsters. With a sneer, Seto raised two fingers in the air to signal his Blue Eyes to attack.

As he did, the video quality in all the monitors flickered. Sensing something was amiss, both Pikachu and Blizzed shifted their attention to their surroundings. Right as Seto ordered his Blue Eyes to attack Yami's Magician's Valkyria, every screen displaying the duel went black and the satellite signal was lost. While the views in the town murmured amongst themselves in mindless and clueless banter of what happened, along with quips for Kaiba to pay his bills on time, Misty and her companions felt the interference of another sort. And sure enough, the image of one she had never seen before appeared on the screen. His eyes were covered with a helmet and the only exposed skin were his mouth and chin. If she didn't know any better, she'd think he were another run-of-the-mill henchmen.

"Watch out, maiden!" Blizzed commanded, spreading his wings protectively in front of her as he glared at the screen, "This man is one of the dangerous ones...!"

"He's the bad guy?" she questioned, gazing at this particular character with intense malcontent. Although she couldn't see his eyes, he seemed to be looking directly at her, "We have found you ενόχληση," it stated in a monotone that sounded accompanied by several other voices.

"Huh? Blizzed, what did he just say?"

"I would be more concerned about who else witnessed that broadcast, maiden!"

"Pika!"

In agreement, Misty scanned the area. No one else seemed to have seen what the 3 of them just did. That was a good thing, in a way. But she felt very uneasy not knowing what lurked in the unseen behind her.

OoO

"WHAT JUST HAPPENED?" Kaiba roared. Just as his Blue Eyes was on the verge of attacking Yami's Magician's Valkyria, the holograms dissipated into nothingness, leaving the duel at an unfinished standstill.

"I'm not sure..." Yami uttered; his eyes skimming around the room for an explanation. "There has been an interference, Seto!" Kisara exclaimed. "Tell me something a little less obvious, would you?" Seto muttered through grit teeth under his breath. Luckily for Kisara, she did not hear him. But Yami did.

"Calm down. We need to figure this out together."

"Do I look like your pathetic cheer-leading friends, Yami?"

"...Kaiba..."

"Then don't start preaching like one. It's bad enough our duel was ruined."

"And it can be postponed. More importantly, we need to figure out what is going on," Yami concluded, shifting his steady gaze from his scowling rival to the tranquil image of Kisara beside him. She nodded and touched a delicate hand to Seto's arm, "He is right, Seto," she assured gingerly; her thin locks whispering over her bare shoulders as softly as her words. Kaiba managed a grumble in protest, but didn't look at either of them.

"Kisara, do you sense anything?" Yami suggested to the duel spirit. As she sought an answer, Yami stepped closer to the two of them. He looked out the windows, giving her glances every other second. Her eyes were closed and her brows quivered in concentration. She seemed to be calculating an answer, so he didn't want to disturb her. Silently, he returned his eyes to the window, then glanced over at Kaiba and paused. Stark blue eyes peered sharply in his direction. If looks could kill, Seto would have had him dead and buried thrice already. In short, Kaiba would have Yami rightfully and royally screwed were he stood. Yami took in a breath to speak his thoughts from having such a pinned gaze on him when Kisara spoke before him, "I sense intruders from another dimension here," she stated in a faraway tone. Ironically, 'intruders' could classify anyone from another world or dimension, and that included Misty. But none of them knew that.

"What do they want?" Yami asked intently, turning to her.

"Peace. Silence. Freedom. Death. Adventure... Not all of them share the same desires. Not all of them have clouded intentions or painful ones. Some of them have vibrant hearts. Others are stuck in-between this world and another."

"Are they what caused the interference?" Seto finally asked.

"Yes."

"Should we stop them?" Yami chimed in, shifting his eyes to Seto for a second.

"No. Others have already begun to stand against their opposer. It has nothing to do with us. And least not for now. For now, we wait and pray for the best," Kisara concluded with a light nod.

"Hnn... I see. Kisara, I'm going to get Mokuba. Yami, get out," Seto claimed, making a stark beeline for the room doors. As he passed by a puzzled Yami, the latter gazed up at the taller with a quizzical expression. "...Kaiba."

"Get. Out. I'll call you when your presence is necessary," he offered with a hint of a smirk over his shoulder. It was one that Yami could read easily and he agreed with similar curve to his lips. "Certainly, Kaiba..."

With that, he watched the CEO take his leave through the doors of the room with a faithful Kisara floating at his side. After they left, Yami's expression softened a bit. He found himself being compared to Kisara in terms of aid, among other things, and felt a twinge of jealousy towards her and her ability. But such emotions would get him nowhere. Laughing lightly, he forced the thoughts away. No use bothering with it now. Without allowing another empty moment to pass, Yami dashed out of the room. He needed to make sure his friends were safe.

OoO

In Domino Square, with Blizzed's aid in direction, Misty maneuvered through the many people about the streets minding the own business. The same face of the individual she had seen on the monitor was fleeing through the streets and she was hot on its tail. Soon., the henchman lured her to a back alley of some sort. She was hesitant about advancing, but with Blizzed's cautious words to not be afraid, Misty followed after the unknown.

"How do you know me?" She called out after the mysterious character stopped running. He stood with his back to her; his lengthy cape fluttering over his tall frame. Slowly, he turned in her direction and kept his body perfectly poised and still. As he faced her, she winced from the sight of the duel disk that materialized around his left arm.

"You're a duelist?"

"We do not have a name. We are one. We will unite all and defeat all. We challenge you and all others like you. We are the Light and will banish all opposers to it. Now, duel so we may take your soul into the Light."

"What?" Misty blinked; her features adorning confused panic. She allowed another blink to echo through time before her eyes widened at what she now witnessed. The buildings and concrete began to dissipate as an engulfing surrounding of light banished reality and ate away at it like acid. Afraid that she would become consumed by the waxing flow of the luminescence, Misty hesitantly took a few steps back, thinking if the light touched her she would be reduced to dust.

"Be not afraid, he is but a puppet," Blizzed assured, "You are able to stand against this, maiden."

"..."

"Pika...!" Pikachu agreed in a determined exclamation.

"Be do be wary... if you are to lose this duel, more will be lost than just your life points. I can sense your very soul is on the line...but so is his..."

"What my soul? I'm not ready to wager my soul!" Misty shrieked, "And you're crazy to think I am! I can't die now! I have to see Ash again! He needs to know I-"

"Maiden please calm yourself! If this world assimilates into yours with the threat of this Light and others like this individual here, you will not have the time for anything. You will be lacking life and then you will never tell this boy your feelings."

"...!.. … Ash..." Misty whispered. As she thought of that wild, courageous boy she always had a crush on for months, she also thought of her sisters, her friends, her love of water Pokemon... She couldn't lose here. She wouldn't lose. Stifling her unspilled tears, Misty lifted her chin high and readied her duel disk. She would win no matter what.

"I'm going first!" she demanded, already drawing her first 6 cards. Numbing Grub of the Ice Barrier, Medium of the Ice Barrier, Strategist of the Ice Barrier, General Raiho of the Ice Barrier, Caravan of The Ice Barrier and the card that would count as her draw for the turn, Moray of Greed, now resided in her hand. She swiftly played Moray of Greed, sending General Raiho and Caravan of The Ice Barrier to her deck in order to draw 3 cards: Blizzard Princess , Freezing of God and Freezing Seal of the Ice Barrier.

. She also summoned Numbing Grub of the Ice Barrier(ATK 1300/ DEF 1800) in attack mode. In regards to Numbing Grub's effect, she chose one of his monster zones to occupy so he couldn't utilize it. Then her turn was over.

"You will belong to us. We will not tolerate anything less that our success. Even if one of us is lost, we are a whole, we are many, and we will triumph as one," the henchman droned in a drab monotone. He drew for the turn: Dragunity Tribus. He skimmed over the other cards in in his hand: Terraforming, Trunade, Hammershot, Dragunity Aklys, and Dragunity Arma Leyvaten. He played this Terraforming spell to search his deck for a field spell and claimed Dragon Ravine. Using one of its optional effects, he chose to discards Leyvaten in order to get Legoinaire. To conclude this turn, he set Giant Trunade and ended his turn.

Misty's brows tensed from such an odd play. Why would he set a spell or trap card and not summon a monster to defend himself with? But she couldn't allow herself to get distracted now. "My turn! I draw!" Misty announced, plucking her card for the turn and glancing it over. A Mother Grizzly. It would definitely be helpful. First, she set the Mother Grizzly in face down defense mode. Next, she played Freezing Seal of the Ice Barrier, rendering the activation and play of any trap or spell cards like that of Cold Wave for Ice Barrier archetype, rendering the activation and play of any trap or spell cards impossible until her next turn.

In return, the henchman drew into Foolish Burial. His expression, if he even had a face, couldn't be seen behind his helmet, seemed to be that of misunderstanding as he viewed his drawn card. "There is no use for this card now. Does not compute. We will not use it at this time." he uttered to himself. He instead set Dragunity Aklys( ATK 1000/ DEF 800) in face down defense mode and ended his turn. On Misty's turn, she added Glass Shield to her hand. She summoned her Strategist of the Ice Barrier to the field( ATK 1600/ DEF 1600) and sent her Medium of the Ice Barrier to the Graveyard by its effect and drew a new card, Secret Gaurds of the Ice Barrier. Being wary of his set card, she attacked his face down Aklys. When he didn't retaliate, she started to attack him directly with the Numbing Grub, but held her ground instead.

"We are not amused," The henchman stated plainly. Dragunity Brandistock joined his hand and he played Legionaire, using its effect to get Aklys to equip to it. But he wasn't done. Due to Dragunity Arma Leyvaten's effect, it could be special summoned from the hand or Graveyard from destroying an equipped Dragunity card to the field. In addition, he could choose a Dragunity monster in his Graveyard and equip it. But first, since Aklys was sent to the grave, its effect activated, allowing him to destroy a card on the field. He of course, chose Misty's face down Mother Grizzly. He then activated Leyvaten's effect and obtained Legionaire from the grave and equipped it to Leyvaten(ATK 2600/ DEF 1200). Yet, again he did not attack. He was preparing for something more devastating. "We end our turn. Your soul will return to the nothingness of the Light."

"You're really creeping me out. My turn..." Misty worded. Her eyes brushed over Reese the Ice Mistress and tribute summoned Blizzard Princess(ATK 2800/ DEF 2100) by sacrifice of a Spellcaster monster. And since its attack points were much higher than the henchman's, she easily destroyed his Dragunity monster (LP 4000- 200= 3800 LP LP) but didn't attack him directly with the Numbing Grub again. She wanted to make sure she kept that sealed monster space right where it was and didn't want to risk losing her upper hand just yet. He gave no hesitation towards her caution and patiently waited for Misty to end her turn. Before she did, she set Glass Shield, and then finished her turn.

Her opponent drew Dragunity Dux. He then activated his Hammershot spell to end Misty's Blizzard Princess since it was the only monster on the field with the highest attack. He also used the effect of his field spell to get rid of the Bradistock in his hand and send it to the Graveyard. He summoned Dux to the field in attack mode(ATK 1500/ DEF 1000). And since its effect counted itself, its attack succeeded to 1700( ATK 1700/ DEF 1000). And thanks to Dux's second effect, he could bring back a Dragunity monster from his Graveyard and chose Brandi. Now the Dux could attack twice. But that wasn't the best play he could make. He initiated Leyvaten's effect to destroy them both and bring it back to the field. He then equipped Brandistock to it, now allowing his newly acquired powerful monster to attack twice(ATK 2600/ DEF 1200). The first attack destroyed Misty's Numbing Grub and freed up one of his monster slots( LP 4000-1300=. 2700 LP). For the second attack, eagerly, his dragon spiraled itself towards Misty directly.

"T-trap activate!" she shouted, raising an arm to initiate Glass Shield's effect. When one is attacked directly, destroy the attacking monster and inflict damage to your opponent equal to the destroyed monsters attack points. So instead of her taking direct damage, he did( LP 3800- 2600= 1200 LP).

Misty cringed when the henchman laughed an eerie flatly tone laugh from her play. After gaining a special summoned Brandistock from the destruction of Lyevaten, he placed it in defense mode. Thankfully, he ended his turn from not having another move to make or else she would have been hit down to 100 LP. That was a little too close. With a shaky hand, Misty drew Blizzed and blinked. "Bl...Blizzed..." she whispered. Silently, she closed her eyes and forced herself to stay focused, "This game isn't over with yet... I... I play...a card face down," Which was Resse the Ice Mistress( ATK 800/ DEF 800; 2 Stars), "My turn ends here!"

"All of you will belong to us," the henchman spoke emotionlessly as he drew for his turn. A Monster Reborn did not please him although he could bring back his recently felled monster with it. While it was a useful card in any case, its significance didn't make much of any sense to him now. And since he had no monster to attack with because his only one was defending, he ended his turn.

For Misty, she drew into another Numbing Grub of the Ice Barrier and summoned it. With the knowledge she gained from her duel with Ryou and from watching Yami on the monitors earlier that day, she prepared to bring forth her first Synchro Summon. Merging her two monsters, she Synchro Summoned to bring forth Dewloren, Tiger King of the Ice Barrier( ATK 2000/ DEF 1400; 6 Stars). But in her tremendous feat, she forgot to attack.

Her opponent took full advantage of this. He used Monster Reborn to get back Leyvaten(8 Stars) and eqipped Legonaire to it. Then he flip summoned his tuner, Brandistock( 2 Stars) and Syncro Summoned for Trident Dragion(ATK 3000/ DEF 2800; Stars 10) and attacked. Out of pre-calculation, he didn't destroy one of his own cards, the still set Giant Trunade, to gain another attack. "Attack the Dewloren," he stated, waving his hand. The dragon gave out a screech and lunged for Misty's monster. (LP 2700- 1000= 1700 LP)

"Ahhhgh! She cried, nearly doubling over to her knees. But somehow, she found the resolve to remain standing, albeit on wobbly legs. Her arms shook; her duel disk rattled, proving her nervousness. Her mouth opened widely to take in a gulp of air, consume it and repel its remains. Things weren't looking good for her and truth be told, she was terrified. She hated showing that side of herself, but she felt as if there was no other way she could force herself to look right now.

"Is it not your turn now, ενόχληση?" the henchman quipped without emotion. Her body flinched. She would have snapped back at him, if not for the calm waver of Blizzed's consciousness in her ear, "Be not afraid, maiden..." he assured; his voice echoing from his form as well as the card of him in her hand. "..." she breathed lowly. Gingerly, she closed her eyes and hovered her hand over her deck. Her mind quieted and her fingers descended slowly towards her deck.

"..." Her opponent titled his head to the side. Her hesitation was odd to him. He couldn't tell if she were about to surrender or if she were simply suffering from some human emotion. "Does not compute"

But Misty did not hear him. The sound of her frantic heartbeat sounded in her ears. She could hear Blizzed speaking to her in a coded manner only she could understand. She heard new voices—the cards of her deck, their words overlapping i toned whispers. They were cheering her on. She heard Pikachu, she heard her own confidence heightening and in addition to that, she heard...him. "You can do it Misty!" she heard him call, "Do it for me!"

A faint wind rolled over Misty and her adversary, toying in her hair and ruffling her clothing. It was then, she felt, and knew, she had this duel won. With an invigorating motion, she touched two fingers to the top of her deck and swiped her card for the draw. She didn't need to look at the card, as she felt its life force speak to her. "I activate Monster Reborn," she uttered, "to bring back Dewloren." She paused as her revived creature once again graced the field. The henchman gave another example of his confusion. Why would she summon a monster that was still much lower than the one he had on the field already?

He was about to find out.

"When I have material monsters in my hand, deck, Graveyard, or in my opponent's or on the field, with at least one of the materials on the field, I can perform...a Resonance Summon..." she spoke. A billowing gust circled around her feet and spiraled up the length of her body. It ruffled her clothes and fluttered through her hair, allowing her bangs to lift out of her eyes and reveal their oceanic degrees. Even through his thick helmet, the henchman saw something that even effected him. And now he knew, there was no turning back for him.

"And with Royal Knight of the Ice Barrier in my deck, Blizzed Defender of the Ice Barrier in my hand and Dewloren Tiger King of the Ice Barrier on my side of the field, I can merge them all to bring forth Chilling Ellegy Knight!"

"Does not compute!"

There was a flash of photon in the middle of the field that steadily consumed the entire area. When it faded, a giant enclosure of ice surrounded a royal entity cocooned within it. In a moment's breath, its eyes opened and the enclosure burst into glittering icy fragments. Before them both stood Chilling Ellegy Knight in all its glowing glory(ATK 2500/ DEF 2100; 7 Stars).

Candid tears caught at her lashes as the wind carried them to ascent, sharing in the sparkle of the dusted gems of ice. Bravely, she continued on, "When this monster is summoned, I can choose up to 3 cards on the field. Those cards won't be able to change position, attack, be activated, their effects are negated and cant be activated, and they can't be activated in response to this cards' effect. And, once per turn, I can destroy one of those cards using this card's effects and when one of those selected cards are removed from the field, I can inflict 1000 damage to my opponent... And guess what you are..." she smirked darkly. She didn't have to speak a word, her creature knew exactly what she wanted done and executed it as such. First, it froze all thee cards on his side of the field, and then disintegrated Trident Dragon, causing 1000 LP of burn damage to him(LP 1200- 1000= 200 LP). But she wasn't finished yet. At her thought, her knight leaped towards her enemy and slashed him with its glacial sword to relinquish him of the rest of his life points, and ending the game (LP 200- 2500= 0 LP).

In a rush of light, the surrounding of the luminescence transcended towards the helmeted henchman, devouring him entirely. In the blink of an eye, he and his essence were gone. It was as if the duel never happened. After a few seconds of recollecting the events of what just transpired, Misty dropped to her knees and hung her head. She was afraid at first—afraid she would lose her life, her friends, her world. But she pulled through and she was the one that remained alive.

She hated this. She hated crying like this. She didn't want to go through another duel like that again. She didn't want to duel for life and death. She just wanted to play the game.

"Aren't lives at risk in a Pokemon battle?" Blizzed questioned in a warm whisper. "No! No one dies!"

"But they are injured."

"Yes but nothing like this! This is going too far!"

"And this is why we need you..."

"... ... " she couldn't argue with the responsibility. She agreed to it herself. She had to go through with it. Gradually, she recomposed herself and pushed herself to her feet. The hint of a shining orb caught her eyes and her curiosity overruled any anxiety that still remained. Upon examining it closer, she realized it was a deck.

"Dragunity," Blizzed informed, "His deck was all that was left behind."

"...Is this his soul?"

"...No..."

"Will I drop my deck like this if I ever lost like he did?"

"...You needn't worry yourself with things left to chance."

"I need to know. By chance, I won and he didn't. ... ... In any case, I should take this with me," she sniffed, regaining her full composure, "I'm sure the 'bad guy' controlling that guy and others like him will want these decks for something. So I'm taking it with me."

"... It will not stay with you. You are not chosen for it."

"Huh?" she wondered. And sure enough, the deck dissolved from her hands. "Where did it go?"

"To its rightful owner..." Blizzed stated, peering up into the heavens above.

OoO

In another part of Domino City, another individual selected by those sacred in their world as well as this one, appeared within a portal. Not a sound was made from her soft cream-hued shoes as she landed into a new world of which she had never seen. Her wide brown eyes surveyed the town of Domino as far as her vision could comprehend. Cutely, she sneezed, causing her fluffy masses of a shaded color that shared her name. "What's this place?" she asked to her unseen companion. Before the girl received an answer, a sparkling glow above her caused her to look up. She lifted her open palms to the descending object and allowed it to come into her possession.

"This is the city of Domino. And you have just obtained your deck of the Dragunity archetype."

OoO

-ενόχληση- Greek for "nuiscance"

-Resonance Summoning is something Johnny made up, along with Glass Shield and Chilling Ellegy Knight.


End file.
